Kerch Strait Bridge Attack

2 min readJul 20, 2023

Unless you’ve lived under a rock (or stuck in internet exile), you’ve probably heard that the Kerch Strait Bridge was attacked again.

While this attack took Russia’s vehicular transport capabilities offline, there’s much more at stake here.

This bridge is Russia’s most crucial logistical infrastructure in this war.

It is Russia’s primary method to get equipment, troops, and fuel into the front.

The reason why the train lines are so critical of the Russian Federation’s war effort against Ukraine is that Russia fights its wars and keeps its military quick primarily by rail Russia, unlike other nations, does not have the capacity or the financial capital to build the infrastructure to connect the Russian Federation internally and to other actors outside of Russia.

The primary reason for the lack of infrastructure is the nature of Russian geography, with the soil needing to be easier to build highways and civil infrastructure, meaning the only viable alternative for Russia is to use trains.

According to the geopolitical analyst and author Peter Zheilan, Russia ‘fights its wars by train’, which means that without an alternative, things could be well messier for the Russians.

This war should have been for the Russians to win, but they are determined to lose this war due to internal corruption.

If the war continues going this poorly for Russia, this will be an example in textbooks of how to lose the war.

Unlike the mainland alternatives, they fancy this route because it is out of artillery range.

Due to the vehicle bomb attack last year, the Kerch Strait Bridge was already operating at a limited capacity; vehicle transport was fine, but only one of two rail lines was operational.

So, with this new attack taking the vehicle spans offline, the singular light cargo rail line is the last man standing.

This is bad news for Russia, and if they can’t fix it quickly, it could evolve into a massive global embarrassment.

Right now, the Ukrainians have a chance to make a huge breakthrough, but if they can’t make it happen soon, it may never happen. So be sure to keep a close eye on Ukraine.