Crimean bridge attack: This is a ‘huge reputational threat to Putin’ | Alina Frolova

isolation of Crimea which could happen with the destroyal of catch bridge will bring like a necessity to Russians in some period to leave it because they won't be able to to protect it and that's obviously clear for all the parties and that could be a huge reputational threat to Putin himself Vladimir Putin has vowed to retaliate for what he described as a terrorist attack on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia moscow's blamed Ukraine for an explosion on the Kirch Bridge which left two people dead but Kiev has not officially said it was responsible well the bridge is an important resupply route for Russian forces occupying parts of Southern Ukraine and the road and rail link between Russia and Crimea which was annexed by Russia in 2014 is now closed meanwhile Russia's withdrawn from a deal which has allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea threatening to spark a new food supply crisis in the developing World earlier I spoke to Alina frolova who is a former deputy minister of defense for Ukraine and also a former advisor to the ministry of defense and I started by asking her to tell us more about the attack on the Kirch Bridge well obviously we know what we know which everyone saw that it was some explosions there are a video of these explosions and there is no some official information from Ukrainian side so we cannot confirm that that was Ukrainian attacks however based on the like General logic we can uh like a thing that this is a Ukrainian Attack Of The Carriage Bridge yes because uh Russia has accused Ukraine's forces of carrying out this attack and it would seem to be logical that it would be Ukrainian forces that would do such a thing yeah it's very logical because the Crimea is our territory and the Crimean bridge is the uh one of the like a key routes to supply the weapons and relation for Russian forces through Crimea so this is some kind of legitimate Target for Ukrainian forces anyway uh but it's not confirmed as I said but it looks like uh to be a Ukrainian attack you say this is an important link between Crimea which is occupied by the Russians and the rest of Russia itself how significant a blow do you think this is for President Putin that's significant because as I said this is one of main routes of Supply not only to Crimea but although South and part of the front line from Russian side and uh not only because of this but also because there are some many forces which are located or temporarily located at the Crimea Peninsula and that's also supply for all the military personnel which is uh like a located for supporting Russian occupation in in southern Premiere so uh that's important and that's of course important from the point of view not on the logistic problem but from reputational point of view of Putin because isolation of Crimea which could happen with the destroyal of catch bridge will bring like a necessity to Russians in some period to live it because they won't be able to to protect it and that's obvious clear for all the parties and that could be a huge reputational threat to Putin himself we've seen some pictures which appear to show quite a bit of damage what's your understanding about how long this route uh the road and Rail Link is likely to be broken I I'm not specialist in this I cannot evaluate the last time we do believe that it took like a once or one month or a few weeks and I don't know how like a more serious this is so we just saw a few some videos and I think it's better to consult with some kind of Bridge construction company or something like that President Putin has vowed that he's going to retaliate for this I mean what do you make of those sorts of threats well the law last year when the Crimean Bridge was seriously attacked the first time uh midrative has been threatened with nuclear weapons usage we saw that nothing has happened yeah I think that they will manipulate uh quite well with this and trying to influence other countries in this grain grain deal because this is specifically uh um like a correlated with the timing of this attack but I do not expect that there would be some specific answers we have more intents we could have more intents um missiles attack for a week or something but that's it I don't think we saw we'll see some specific answer for this yes as you mentioned there we've also had Russia Today announce that he is pulling out of that deal which allowed Ukraine to export uh much of its grain uh to to Europe and indeed to other uh African countries and so on what do you think is the significance of that uh well anyway before we heard many like statements of Russian government and Putin himself that they don't want to prolong this deal because actually they were trying to Blackmail some preferences for them through this deal which they didn't get um and Frank was saying I do think that more of this deal depends on Turkey than in Russia because last time when Russia declared that they do withdrawal turkey just ignored and in two days Russia came back and I think that uh very important here is the position of turkey because if they will continue a company those ships like a commercial ships with grain Russians won't attack it and that's what really means in this situation not Russian opinion but it is important as well for Ukraine isn't it that it can export some of its grain supplies um that is vital I mean for its economy apart from anything else yes sure it's it's very important uh however for us the um what we can transport now basically is very very minimal uh expert uh like if who compare it to those Before the War uh we yes we do suffer from non-supplies or non-delivery basic uh we also suffer from that that's almost 50 percent of our lands are occupied or heavily mined and cannot be used for agriculture uh so we lost a lot of our Harvest for today but still we do understand again that the with such a configuration we will be always dependent from the moods of Putin or some other reasons and the only uh resolve for this problem like a serious result of this problem can be Ukrainian um winning this war and only then we can provide the constant stability sometimes Security in PC and security transportation and normal Agriculture and a supply of foods and Grains and all the others and on that of course the counter-offensive is underway Ukraine trying to regain some of the territory which is occupied by Russia what's your understanding of how that counter-offensive is going uh I think it's going well because this is obviously the first phase when we try to like understand where are the weaknesses of our enemies and we try to attack on different uh dimensions in different directions to understand where we can make the like a main stripe or main efforts at the same time I should tell that even for this like one month we gain more territories than Russia occupied in last six months is to gain back them and uh that's uh no one in Ukraine expects the counter cancer which will just release all the territories in two weeks we see uh Effectiveness we see results we do understand that uh for us each life matters and that's why it's done very in very careful way and we uh I'm satisfied with it with the results and we know that the Wagner group was playing a significant role in parts of the front line particularly around bakamud is it your understanding that those forces are now uh completely withdrawn from those areas I mean and how significant has that been has that made a difference in your attempts to push back the Russian troops in accordance with reports of our general staff and the Armed Forces actually there were no withdrawal passengers troops from the front line they are still there so some part probably not substantial one was was wrong but not that which makes any difference our general staff doesn't see or Armed Forces doesn't see some kind of a big withdrawal of any kind of troops from the front line so um that makes no practical influence on the operation on the ground let's say so well that was Alina fullover who's a former Ukrainian Deputy defense minister also a former advisor to the ministry of Defense speaking to me just a little earlier this evening

Channel: Times Radio

Views: 89,062

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Id: 3hJcxdG_9aY

Length: 10min 39sec (639 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 18 2023