What will be the reaction of the Kremlin? Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused kyiv of committing a “terrorist act“by organizing the explosion which partially destroyed the Crimean bridge on Saturday linking Russia to the annexed peninsula, followed overnight by deadly Russian strikes against a Ukrainian city.
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This was Vladimir Putin’s first reaction to the explosion which occurred early Saturday morning, and which constitutes a new major setback for Russia, at a time when its forces are in difficulty in Ukraine. While the Ukrainian army and Kyiv’s special services, the SBU, have neither confirmed nor denied their involvement, President Volodymyr Zelensky was content to quip in a video about the time “cloudy“what it was like on Saturday in Crimea, in allusion to the smoke from the fire,”although it was also warm there“.
Statements that should further strain the atmosphere around Vladimir Putin, who convened his security council on Monday, October 10. This meeting between security force officials could be an opportunity for the Kremlin to announce a military response to this event. Because, for the Kremlin, the attack on the bridge would have been fomented by agents of the Ukrainian intelligence services with the help of Russian citizens and foreign nationals. Surprisingly, these accusations bring together everything that the Kremlin hates in Ukraine and therefore sound like the signal of a strong announcement to come. A few minutes earlier, another worrying signal had been sent by the Russian security services, the FSB: according to them, Ukraine had multiplied the firing on Russian territory in recent days. The services do not specify whether they are talking about Russian territory or Ukrainian territories recently annexed by Moscow. But these accusations sound like a second worrying signal.
Everything therefore suggests that the Security Council convened by Vladimir Putin could be the subject of a strong statement, a response to all the humiliations suffered by the army and the government in recent weeks. This key meeting therefore has a clear objective: to avenge the affront and begin reprisals. Enough to give food for thought to the most warmongering Russians, who since Saturday are now calling on Moscow to destroy the Ukrainian electrical infrastructure in particular.
In the room, around Vladimir Poutine, a man will have to incarnate the decisions to come, a new face among the ministers, the political leaders and the representatives of the security forces and the army: Serguei Sourovikine. This general, who now leads the war in Ukraine, was appointed just hours after the attack on the bridge. He is a man known for his brutality, tested in particular in Syria where he led Russian troops in support of Bashar al-Assad.
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“The enemy has ceased to be afraid, and this must be remedied as soon as possible“, estimated Sunday one of the war correspondents of Russia Today, the state media. However, the Kremlin informed the Russian journalists responsible for following the presidential news that the attack on the Crimean bridge would not lead to a use of nuclear weapons.