Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba argued Monday (17/07/2023) that the Kerch Bridge, which connects the occupied Crimea peninsula with Russia and suffered another attack that Moscow blames on Kiev, was a legitimate military target.
“Not every bridge is civil (infrastructure) by definition. First of all, this particular bridge was built illegally, it exists outside of the law and we need to remember that. And secondly, it is mainly used for military purposes and we must treat it as such,” Kuleba said when asked by journalists at the UN headquarters.
He emphasized: “The bridge is mainly used to supply the Russian army in occupied Crimea and southern Ukraine with ammunition, fuel and other military equipment that the Russian army needs to continue its war of aggression.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister avoided confirming whether his country was responsible for Monday’s attack, arguing that a trip to New York would not give access to classified information.
This morning is the second attack on the Crimean Bridge, which was inaugurated in May 2018 and consists of a double structure, an automobile and a railway structure.
In October last year, a truck loaded with explosives exploded on Europe’s longest bridge, 19 kilometers long, killing five people.
Now, the attack claimed two lives, and the Ukrainian security service indirectly claimed responsibility, saying that after the country’s “victory” over Russia, it would release “full details about the organisation” of the attack, and by saying that reference poem readjusted to the bridge as he did last October after the first attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would respond to the “terrorist attack by the Kiev regime” and that the Defense Ministry was preparing “appropriate proposals”.
For its part, the British Foreign Office has denied Russia’s allegations that British intelligence services were involved in an attack on the Kerch Bridge.
“This is unfounded speculation by Russia and we will not honor it with further comment,” a Foreign Office spokesman said in London.
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said on Monday, without providing any evidence, that British intelligence agencies were involved in the attack, which killed two people, wounded a girl and damaged the bridge.
gs (efe, dpa, Portal)