Ukraine has, for the first time, apparently admitted playing a role in the deadly attack on the Crimean Bridge last autumn. The incident belongs in the list of achievements for the country's armed forces, a senior official has claimed.
While Moscow has repeatedly claimed that the attack was staged by the Ukrainians, officials in Kiev had never before directly admitted responsibility.
On Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Maliar published a post on Telegram commemorating 500 days since the start of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow, outlining several highlights.
The list includes an apparent public acknowledgment of Kiev’s role in the attack on the key link between the eastern part of the Russian peninsula and the rest of the country. “[It has been] 273 days since the first strike was conducted on the Crimean bridge to break the Russian logistics,” Maliar wrote.
The Crimean Bridge was damaged in a truck explosion last October, resulting in several people dead and serious damage to the facility. It has been fully repaired since.
Moscow called the blast a “terror attack” masterminded by the Ukrainian intelligence services, and responded by intensifying missile strikes on Ukrainian energy and military infrastructure.
In the aftermath of the bombing, officials in Kiev cheered the blast, but stopped short of taking responsibility, with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky stating that “we definitely did not order that, as far as I know.”
Shortly after the incident, however, several Western media outlets reported, citing sources, that Kiev was indeed behind the explosion. In late May, eight months after the incident, Vasily Malyuk, the head of Ukraine’s Security Service, hinted at Kiev’s role in the attack, saying that “given that this was a logistics route that had to be cut off, certain measures were taken.”