This is a machine translation of an article from the Online portal Korrespondent.net. The translation was neither checked nor edited and the spelling of names and geographical names does not correspond to the usual ones Ukraine News conventions used.
Almost half of the barges have disappeared from the Kerch Bridge defense line, satellite images show.
The number of barges the invaders installed in the Kerch Strait as barriers to protect Ukrainian forces from naval drones halved during the month. This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism on Tuesday, December 10th.
Satellite images from November 8 showed 34 vessels tied together by the Russians in two rows on both sides of the Kerch Strait channel.
This is exactly the number that the invaders finally lined up on the southern side of the Crimean Bridge from July 27th to August 8th.
New photos from the Sentinel-2 satellite dated December 8 show that 18 barges remained between the island of Tuzla and the coast of the Kerch Peninsula. It is still unknown where the other 16 ships disappeared to.
The number of barges began to decline at the end of November: on November 29th there were 24 and on December 3rd there were already a maximum of 19.
“For the first time, the Russians will use river-sea-class barges to protect the Kerch Bridge in the fall of 2023.” At that time, seven watercraft were chained together and sunk near the eastern span of the bridge, probably to protect the supports from underwater attacks . “It is therefore not excluded that the attackers have also started sinking barges on the bottom of the strait near the western span,” writes CJR.
Recall, on the night of December 6, a group of naval drones of the Security Service of Ukraine engaged in a battle with Russian helicopters, planes and patrol boats in the Kerch Bay.
