Gauleiter of the temporarily occupied Crimea, Aksenov, reported that a cruise missile was "shot down" by russian air defense in the Kerch area. According to him, this event happened around 12:00 on Sunday. Of course, at the same time, the russian official declared that "there were no injuries or victims."
This information is also confirmed by the so-called russian "military bloggers", but they radically disagreed with the officials in their testimony about the type of missile. Some fantasize that in reality it was not a cruise missile, but a modified surface-to-air missile of the S-200 SAM system, which, as it were, is adapted for hitting ground targets along a ballistic trajectory. Others claim that it could be the Ukrainian Grim-2 (the Sapsan) tactical ballistic missile system, which, according to updated public information, is extremely far from completion.
Read more: Ukrainian MiG-29 May Have Just Gotten ADM-160B MALD Decoys to Facilitate Attacks With Storm Shadow
Against the background of the statement about the attack and the "successful work" of russian air defense, traffic on the Crimean bridge was prohibited for several hours. In general, due to increased security measures and inspection of motor vehicles by the occupiers, queues of half a thousand cars have formed on this bridge in recent days, waiting to pass.
An analysis of publicly released videos of russian air defense in the area of the Kerch Bridge shows that anti-aircraft missiles were directed at a high-altitude target, while cruise missiles use low-altitude flight to break through air defenses.
Based on this, we can conclude that there is a very small probability that a cruise missile was used for the attack on the Kerch Bridge. This statement is also true for the convertible Strizh UAV.
If, after all, we were talking about a "cruise missile", then with a high degree of probability we can assume the possibility of the Ukrainian side using a special missile of the ADM-160 MALD type, the latest versions of which can transmit information about radar radiation received during the flight. Such a target on the radar should look exactly like a cruise missile, and its high-altitude flight profile is exactly what is needed in order to detect the location of enemy air defense objects.
It should also be noted that in the russian federation on Sunday, July 9, this was not the only a missile attack. The local authorities of the Rostov region reported that at around 12:00 p.m. in the area of the settlement of Donetsk, which is located near the border with Ukraine on the territory of the russian federation (not to be confused with the city of Donetsk, the administrative center of the Donetsk region of Ukraine), another missile was "shot down", while the type of missile was not reported. Officially, the russian federation also declared that there were no victims, but some buildings were damaged and, in addition, "there were other technical damages." Also, local residents have already posted photos of the wreckage of the missile on social networks, but it was not possible to identify them.
Read more: Ukraine’s Air Force Spokesman Says Storm Shadow Missiles are Working, But Ukraine Needs ATACMS
