The Kerch Bridge that connects Russia to Crimea partially collapsed after an explosion – possibly a car bomb – went off overnight. A parallel span with a rail line had a fuel train at the time; several of the tanker cars caught fire. All in all, quite an impressive mess.
In related matters, it seems that the deeper strategy behind the Wagner Group recruiting Russian criminals has become clear:
"Wagner’s forces attack only so far before sending inmates with little support forward to face Ukrainian guns like 'cannon fodder'…tactics have left Ukrainian forces in the region with a flood of prisoners as the inmates frequently surrender." @Tmgneff https://t.co/mbDGljdfsh pic.twitter.com/7MMaYRnlZD
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) September 26, 2022
The prisoners, it seems, were never meant to be useful as any sort of fighting force, and barely even as cannon fodder: instead, they are being simply dumped into Ukrainian hands. This empties out Russian prisons, saving them some money, and are now Ukraines problem. Ukrainian military forces have to deal with the POWs on the battlefield; then the tattered Ukrainian economy has to deal with housing them. The Russians, it seems, views them as deserters and won’t trade them for Ukrainian POWs.
Genius. Evil genius, but genius nonetheless. It’s largely the same strategy that Turkey and such have used against Europe with floods of “migrants.”