"One of the sacralized symbols of Russia's imperial policy": Pletenchuk assures that Ukraine has not abandoned plans for Kerch bridge

Ukraine has not abandoned its plans to destroy the Crimean bridge and does not ignore the territory of the occupied peninsula, which is why it is "restless" there from time to time. The aggressor country, the Russian Federation, is forced to make great efforts to defend its illegal annexation of Ukrainian Crimea.

This was stated by Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, in a commentary to the Ukrainian media. "You probably see cases in the information space from time to time that there is unrest in Crimea. This may indicate that we are not ignoring the Russian-occupied territory of our Crimea," he said.

According to Pletenchuk, the occupiers are forced to spend huge resources to respond to such "attention".

"And they are also forced to make every effort to preserve this illegal annexation to Crimea. And in this sense, Ukraine has not abandoned its plans, and we are doing everything possible to implement them," Pletenchuk said.

He added that the decision to hit the Crimean bridge will be made by the top military leadership, but even now the aggressor will have to make every effort to defend this illegal facility, which in turn is "very difficult" for the Russians.

The occupiers are forced to use the "maximum possible" number of air defense systems around the Kerch bridge and to engage other branches of the army, including the Russian Guard, to carry out the passage regime, which they call "counterterrorism."

According to the Ukrainian Navy spokesperson, the Russians cannot use the Kerch Bridge to transfer military supplies, but it remains a symbol of imperial policy for them.

"The bridge cannot perform the main function, namely full-fledged military logistics by rail, for which it was built. For Russians, the very factor of its existence, its symbolism, remains important. Even without actually being able to use it to the fullest for the transfer of heavily armored vehicles and fuel tanks, they still cling to it as one of the sacralized symbols of Russian imperial policy," Pletenchuk explained.

As for the possible launch of an alternative railroad to the Crimean Bridge, there is no confirmation that the enemy has this potential, the spokesman said:

"There is no confirmed information that they have connected Rostov with Dzhankoy, as they declared. There was a railroad there before. The fact that they have restored it does not mean that they can now transport everything they need to Crimea by land."

Pletenchuk added that the occupiers transported their goods by ferry, which was no longer working after the defeat, and this logistics was not available to the enemy in the south.

An oil terminal was on fire in occupied Feodosia.

"These are all elements of Russian military logistics that are now 'successfully' not working," said a representative of the Ukrainian Navy.