There’s an old saying in military circles that when planning an operation: “Amateurs study tactics. Professionals study logistics.” Almost every war in history has been won or lost by logistics, in the final analysis. World War 2 was won by the Allies in no small part because of American industrial might. Even the Soviet Union used a lot of American trucks and aircraft, and there is an apocryphal story from North Africa of a British officer watching the unloading of American ships in a never-ending stream of trucks, tanks, artillery pieces, ammunition and everything else, and commenting that “…the Americans don’t so much solve their problems as overwhelm them.”
In the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war, there isn’t any such clear advantage. Both sides are having logistical issues. But there’s more than one way to skin that particular cat. On Tuesday, Ukraine announced an attack on a key logistical choke point: The Kerch bridge, which connects Russia to Crimea.
Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said on Telegram that its agents had mined the piers of the road and rail Crimean Bridge, also called the Kerch Bridge, and detonated the first explosive at 4.44 a.m. Tuesday. The whole operation took several months, it added.
The agency said it had used 1,100 kilograms of explosives which “severely damaged” the underwater pillars supporting the bridge.
Traffic on the bridge was suspended early Tuesday morning, then again mid-afternoon, before resuming shortly before 6 p.m. local time. Although the scale of the damage was not immediately clear, Tuesday’s attack is the latest example of the SBU’s attempts to blindside Moscow and demonstrate that there are costs to continuing its war.
The bridge wasn’t destroyed, and it was only damaged enough to keep traffic off for a few hours. There are some advantages to both sides in this; for Ukraine, this attack will result in at least some Russian assets being moved to guard their logistical trains. For the Russians, this is a look at Ukraine’s mission planning and, between this and the earlier drone attack, is giving them some looks at capabilities that they may not have known Ukraine had.
Ukraine now can’t go back to this particular well, and they seem to understand this.
“God loves the Trinity, and the SBU always sees things through to the end and never does the same thing twice. We previously struck the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition, this time underwater,” Malyuk said.
He stressed that the bridge is a “completely legitimate target,” since Russia uses it “as a logistical artery to supply its troops” fighting in mainland Ukraine.
This can also be seen as a shot directly at Tsar Vladimir I. He did, after all, cause the bridge to be built and opened in 2018, at the estimated cost of $3.7 billion. It was a big deal, something they may have called a Hero Project in the bad old days of the Soviet Union, and now Ukraine has taken a shot at something that has Putin’s name all over it.
See Also: Russia Surging Troops to Ukraine’s Northern Border in a Possible Prelude to Invasion
It’s a gutsy move, even if it ultimately failed.
As is always the case, it’s all about beans and bullets. One of the few ways Ukraine can come out of this intact is to keep its people supplied and fed while interfering with Russia’s ability to do likewise. Ukraine has the advantage of being on the defense, mostly in its own territory, this having much shorter supply chains. Russia has the advantage of having considerably more resources.
This is an interesting move by Ukraine. Tactics are important, yes, but Ukraine seems to have a few professionals who are studying the logistics of this conflict. That may play into whatever comes next.
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