Ukraine's counteroffensive to target Putin's bridge: Zelenskyy's ex-aide

Kyiv's counteroffensive will target the strategically vital Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects Russia with Crimea, a former adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Oleksiy Arestovych, who served as Ukrainian presidential adviser until he resigned earlier this year, said one of the goals of Ukraine's counteroffensive may be an operation in the south of the country which will seek to cut Russians off from the land corridor to Crimea, paving the way for Ukraine to recapture the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014, Newsweek reports.

Arestovych resigned in January after saying that a Russian missile that killed 45 people in the city of Dnipro had been shot down by Ukrainian air defense—something that Ukraine's air defense forces denied. Many called for Arestovych's dismissal, saying that he made unverified statements and aided the Kremlin's attempt to paint the incident and subsequent casualties as Ukraine's fault.

"Crimea cannot be held without a land corridor," Arestovych told YouTube channel Feygin Live, hosted by lawyer and former Russian opposition politician Mark Feygin. He was weighing in on a possible attempt by Ukraine to recapture the peninsula as part of its counteroffensive.

Zelenskyy pledged last summer to reverse Russia's nine-year-old illegal annexation of Crimea. In recent weeks, extensive fortifications have been spotted along Crimea's coast and the Russian Sevastopol naval base as Russia braces for Ukrainian advance.

According to Arestovych, Ukraine's armed forces will launch an attack on the Kerch bridge, which is Russia's sole land link with the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

He said that if Ukrainian troops are successful in blocking the narrow isthmus which links Crimea to Ukraine's mainland, then the Crimean bridge will become the only supply channel for the peninsula. If Ukraine's armed forces are successful in demolishing it, then the peninsula, according to Arestovych, will be left without help.

"We will demolish the Crimean bridge. All this is possible under certain conditions, we are currently arranging the conditions," Arestovych said.

Putin in October 2022 blamed Ukrainian secret services for an explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait. The explosion damaged a key supply route for Russia's forces amid the Kremlin's flagging war effort in Ukraine.

Ukraine didn't claim responsibility for the October strike, but days later, Russian strikes targeted at least 14 Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv. Retaliatory strikes targeting Ukraine's critical infrastructure continued for weeks.

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Mark Cancian, senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Newsweek that Ukraine will likely try to cut Crimea off, take out the Kerch Strait Bridge and "just squeeze it over time make it untenable to hold."

Cancian assessed there will be an "extended siege" in a Ukrainian attempt to recapture Crimea.

Andrii Chernyak, a representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, said this week that the agency "strongly recommends leaving occupied Crimea while this option is still available."

"Ukraine is coming back and will come back to Crimea," he told ArmyInform, a Ukrainian news outlet.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment via email.