Politics related because someone blew up the bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea and it has obvious impacts on the war in Ukraine. Also staff said to leave this out of the tactical updates thread.
The Northwest bound road span was collapsed in several places, the opposite road span damaged but apparently useable for at least normal vehicles, and the rail bridge damaged by fire, unknown lasting damage.
Here's the cctv footage again:
Here's the aftermath from that same footage. The truck is gone and where it was is the only fully buckled road span.
Some have focused on a wave under the bridge that could have been a boat/sub/drone. That's right before the explosion a bit to the SE from the explosion, pointed out here:
However we can see the approximate location of that wave by watching the cctv video until the smoke clears, and there are light poles and/or guardrails twisted between the site of the wave and the center of the explosion where the truck was over the only fully buckled road spans:
Also note above the eastern light poles bent away from the only fully buckled span where the truck was, and that the center guardrails are blown away and the western guardrails are bent away from the blast that was centered on the only fully buckled road span where the truck was.
Here's the bridge again showing the buckled spans (red arrow), scorching on the road surface from the explosion, and the approximate location of the wave (green arrow), using the standing part of the bridge and twisted guardrails as a reference:
This is a shot from The Guardian's YouTube story. Looking in the direction of travel of the truck, directly across from the source of the explosion where the truck was (buckled spans) you can see the remaining road bridge is slightly bent towards the rail bridge by the explosion. Also all the the guardrails and lights agree with that source:
Finally, here's an underneath view of the buckled spans. You know this is the part of the bridge with the red arrow because it's the only part of the bridge where two road spans are both sloping into the water facing each other. There is no scorching and really no evidence of an explosion of any kind underneath the most heavily damaged portion of the bridge:
So what did it?
Most likely: the truck was remotely detonated with a huge bomb in the trailer and an unwitting driver.
Less likely: a missile strike of some kind. If you have the ability, why send one when you could send several and really take it out? Why not target the arch?
Less likely: sabotage. Would be very challenging and again why not take the whole bridge down at the arch?
Less likely: a boat or sub borne bomb. All evidence points to an explosion on the surface where the truck was. There's no explosive damage at all underneath the bridge, and the water was largely undisturbed by the blast.
The Northwest bound road span was collapsed in several places, the opposite road span damaged but apparently useable for at least normal vehicles, and the rail bridge damaged by fire, unknown lasting damage.
Here's the cctv footage again:
Russian Telegram channels are sharing this video which is allegedly CCTV footage of the explosion. https://t.co/3ooL473SJA pic.twitter.com/zMFK6ADkoR
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) October 8, 2022
Here's the aftermath from that same footage. The truck is gone and where it was is the only fully buckled road span.
Some have focused on a wave under the bridge that could have been a boat/sub/drone. That's right before the explosion a bit to the SE from the explosion, pointed out here:
However we can see the approximate location of that wave by watching the cctv video until the smoke clears, and there are light poles and/or guardrails twisted between the site of the wave and the center of the explosion where the truck was over the only fully buckled road spans:
Also note above the eastern light poles bent away from the only fully buckled span where the truck was, and that the center guardrails are blown away and the western guardrails are bent away from the blast that was centered on the only fully buckled road span where the truck was.
Here's the bridge again showing the buckled spans (red arrow), scorching on the road surface from the explosion, and the approximate location of the wave (green arrow), using the standing part of the bridge and twisted guardrails as a reference:
This is a shot from The Guardian's YouTube story. Looking in the direction of travel of the truck, directly across from the source of the explosion where the truck was (buckled spans) you can see the remaining road bridge is slightly bent towards the rail bridge by the explosion. Also all the the guardrails and lights agree with that source:
Finally, here's an underneath view of the buckled spans. You know this is the part of the bridge with the red arrow because it's the only part of the bridge where two road spans are both sloping into the water facing each other. There is no scorching and really no evidence of an explosion of any kind underneath the most heavily damaged portion of the bridge:
So what did it?
Most likely: the truck was remotely detonated with a huge bomb in the trailer and an unwitting driver.
Less likely: a missile strike of some kind. If you have the ability, why send one when you could send several and really take it out? Why not target the arch?
Less likely: sabotage. Would be very challenging and again why not take the whole bridge down at the arch?
Less likely: a boat or sub borne bomb. All evidence points to an explosion on the surface where the truck was. There's no explosive damage at all underneath the bridge, and the water was largely undisturbed by the blast.
