‘Kerch Bridge attack aimed at disrupting Crimea-Zaporizhzhia supply chain & create internal discord’

The bridge connecting Crimea and Russia carries heavy significance for Moscow, both logistically and psychologically, as a key artery for military and civilian supplies and as an assertion of Kremlin control of the peninsula it illegally annexed in 2014. An attack on the bridge before dawn Monday, killing a couple and seriously injuring their daughter, left a span of the roadway hanging perilously. The damage initially appeared to be less severe than what was caused by an assault in October, but it highlighted the bridge’s vulnerability. Russia blamed Ukraine for both attacks. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Security Service on Monday did not directly acknowledge responsibility but said the service would reveal details about organizing the blast once Ukraine achieves victory in the war. This second attack on the Crimea bridge was followed by Russia suspending, for a second time, a wartime deal designed to move grain from Ukraine to parts of the world where millions are going hungry. The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, has allowed 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million tons) of food to be exported from Ukraine since August, more than half to developing countries, according to the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul. Some analysts don’t foresee a lasting rise in the cost of commodities like wheat because there’s enough grain in the world to go around. But many countries are already struggling with high local food prices, which are helping fuel hunger. For more on the Crimea Kerch Bridge attack, Russia’s suspension of the wartime grain deal and how it threatens world food supplies, FRANCE 24’s Delano D’Souza is joined by Dr. Samuel Ramani, Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Tutor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.