{"id":138509,"date":"2022-10-11T15:36:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T19:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=138509"},"modified":"2022-10-11T15:44:43","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T19:44:43","slug":"british-spies-plotted-the-terrorist-bombing-attack-on-the-kerch-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=138509","title":{"rendered":"

British Spies Plotted the Terrorist Bombing Attack on the Kerch Bridge<\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXPOSED: Before Ukraine blew up Kerch Bridge, British spies plotted it<\/h1>\n

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KIT KLARENBERG<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The secret British intelligence plot to blow up Crimea\u2019s Kerch Bridge is revealed in internal documents and correspondence obtained exclusively by The Grayzone.<\/h3>\n

The Grayzone\u00a0has obtained an April 2022 presentation drawn up for senior British intelligence officers hashing out an elaborate scheme to blow up Crimea\u2019s Kerch Bridge with the involvement of specially trained Ukrainian soldiers. Almost six months after the plan was circulated, Kerch Bridge was attacked\u00a0in an October 8th suicide bombing apparently\u00a0overseen<\/a>\u00a0by Ukraine\u2019s SBU intelligence services.<\/p>\n

Detailed proposals for providing \u201caudacious\u201d support to Kiev\u2019s \u201cmaritime raiding operations\u201d were drafted at the request of\u00a0Chris Donnelly<\/a>, a senior British Army intelligence operative and veteran high ranking NATO advisor. The wide-ranging plan\u2019s core component was \u201cdestruction of the bridge over the Kerch Strait.\u201d<\/p>\n

Documents and correspondence plotting the operation were provided to The Grayzone by an anonymous source.<\/p>\n

The truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge differed operationally from the plot sketched therein.\u00a0Yet, Britain\u2019s evident interest in planning such an attack underscores the deep involvement of NATO powers in the Ukraine proxy war. At almost precisely the time that London\u00a0reportedly sabotaged<\/a>\u00a0peace talks between Kiev and Moscow in April this year, British military intelligence operatives were drawing up blueprints to destroy a major Russian bridge crossed by thousands of civilians per day.<\/p>\n

The roadmap was produced by\u00a0Hugh Ward, a British military veteran. A number of strategies for helping Ukraine \u201cpose a threat to Russian naval forces\u201d in the Black Sea are outlined. The overriding objectives are stated as aiming to \u201cdegrade\u201d Russia\u2019s ability to blockade Kiev, \u201cerode\u201d Moscow\u2019s \u201cwarfighting capability\u201d,\u00a0 and isolate Russian land and maritime forces in Crimea by \u201cdenying resupply by sea and overland via Kerch bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the complete blueprint:\u00a0Support for Maritime Raiding Operations \u2013 Proposal<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In an email, Ward asked Donnelly to \u201cplease protect this document,\u201d and it\u2019s easy to see why. Of these assorted plans, only the \u201cKerch Bridge Raid CONOPS [concept of operation]\u201d is subject to a dedicated annex at the conclusion of Ward\u2019s report, underlining its significance.<\/p>\n

The content amounts to direct, detailed advocacy for the commission of what could constitute a grave war crime. Markedly, in plotting ways to destroy a major passenger bridge, there is no reference to avoiding civilian casualties.<\/p>\n

Across three separate pages, alongside diagrams, the author spells out the terms of the \u201cmission\u201d \u2013 \u201c[disabling] the Kerch Bridge in a way that is audacious, disrupts road and rail access to Crimea and maritime access to the Sea of Azov.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward suggests that destroying the bridge \u201cwould require a cruise missile battery to hit the two concrete pillars either side of the central steel arch, which will cause a complete structural failure,\u201d and \u201cprevent any road re-supply from the Russian mainland to Crimea and temporally [sic] disrupt the shipping lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An alternative \u201cscheme\u201d entails a \u201cteam of attack divers or UUVs [unmanned underwater vehicles] equipped with limpet mines and linear cutting charges\u201d targeting a \u201ckey weakness\u201d and \u201cdesign flaw\u201d in the bridge\u2019s pillars.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This \u201cflaw\u201d is \u201cseveral thin pylons used to support the main span,\u201d which were intended to allow strong currents to flow underneath the Bridge with minimal friction. Ward pinpoints a particular area in which the depth of water around a set of pillars was just 10 meters, making it the \u201cweakest part\u201d of the structure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In related emails obtained by The Grayzone, Chris Donnelly, the senior British army intelligence operative and former NATO advisor, declared the proposals to be \u201cvery impressive indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reached by phone, Hugh Ward did not deny that he had prepared the Kerch Bridge destruction blueprint for Chris Donnelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to have a chat with Chris [Donnelly] and confirm with him what he\u2019s prepared for me to release,\u201d\u00a0Ward told The Grayzone, when asked directly if he drafted the \u201caudacious\u201d plan.<\/p>\n

Asked again to confirm his role in the blueprint, Ward paused, then said: \u201cI can not confirm that. I\u2019ll have a chat with Chris first.\u201d<\/p>\n

A suicide attack on a $4 billion transportation artery\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At dawn on October 8th, an incendiary attack damaged the Kerch Bridge. A truck exploded, setting two oil tankers ablaze, causing two Crimea-bound spans of the roadway to collapse into the sea below, and killing three.<\/p>\n

While the affected section was quickly repaired and\u00a0traffic resumed<\/a>\u00a0the next day, Western media has celebrated the incident as the latest Russian embarrassment and failure in the conflict with Ukraine. In some cases, journalists openly\u00a0cheered and joked<\/a>\u00a0about what could plausibly be categorized as a war crime that claimed civilian lives.<\/p>\n

The suicide strike targeted a connecting structure between Crimea and mainland Russia constructed at a cost of $4 billion, and whose opening provided a major public relations victory for the Kremlin, reinforcing Moscow\u2019s renewed control of the majority Russian-speaking territory.<\/p>\n

Upon its unveiling in\u00a0May 2018<\/a>, Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn different historical epochs, even under the tsar priests, people dreamed of building this bridge. Then they returned to this in the 1930s, the 40s, the 50s. And finally, thanks to your work and your talent, the miracle has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bridge has been heavily defended since February 24th, not least because it serves as a major transport route for military equipment to Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Russia has previously promised major reprisals in response to any strike on the structure.<\/p>\n

Following the attack, widespread euphoria erupted among Ukrainians, Ukrainian authorities, and Ukraine supporters on social media. Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine\u2019s national security and defense council,\u00a0posted a video<\/a>\u00a0of the burning bridge alongside a black-and-white clip of Marilyn Monroe singing\u00a0Happy Birthday, Mr. President<\/i>\u00a0\u2014 a reference to Putin turning 70 the same day.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Ukrainian media\u00a0has reported<\/a>\u00a0via an anonymous source \u201cin law enforcement agencies\u201d that the attack was carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine. Yet, high-ranking Ukrainian officials, including chief presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, are\u00a0now backtracking<\/a>, claiming instead that the incident was a Russian false flag.<\/p>\n

Such allegations have become commonplace in the wake of incidents in which Ukrainian \u2013 or Western \u2013 culpability seems likely or indeed certain, such as the Nord Stream pipeline explosions.<\/p>\n

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Lithuanian ex-Minister of Defense Audrius\u00a0Butkevi\u010dius\u00a0was involved in secret British intelligence plans to destroy Kerch Bridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Laying the foundations of World War III<\/h3>\n

While the attack on Kerch Bridge did not involve specialist divers, underwater drones or cruise missiles, there are indications that Ward\u2019s plans were shared with the Ukrainian government at the highest levels. In fact, Chris Donnelly forwarded them to former Lithuanian Minister of Defense Audrius Butkevi\u010dius, before introducing the pair by email.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A leading figure in Lithuania\u2019s anti-Communist movement, Butkevi\u010dius\u00a0has admitted<\/a>\u00a0to deliberately leading pro-independence fighters into Soviet snipers\u2019 line of fire on January 13th 1991. This incident is\u00a0sometimes referred to<\/a>\u00a0as Vilnius\u2019 \u201cBloody Sunday,\u201d and is\u00a0officially observed<\/a>\u00a0as the Day of the Defenders of Freedom. Butkevi\u010dius and his confederates knew the maneuver would provoke mass casualties, further inflaming the local population against Soviet leadership and encourage regime change, which is why they orchestrated it.<\/p>\n

More recently, Butkevi\u010dius co-owned Bulcommerce KS, a company\u00a0that served<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cthe main intermediary in the supply of Bulgarian weapons and ammunition to Ukraine through third countries,\u201d for use in the civil war in Donbas.<\/p>\n

Butkevi\u010dius has\u00a0been\u00a0credibly accused<\/a>\u00a0of working for British intelligence. Email exchanges with Donnelly confirm he is in contact with Guy Spindler, a long-time MI6 officer who was posted in London\u2019s Moscow Embassy concurrently with the infamous Trump-Russia \u201cdossier\u201d author Christopher Steele.<\/p>\n

Reached by phone and asked if he reviewed the \u201cAudacious\u201d plan to destroy Kerch Bridge, Spindler told The Grayzone: \u201cI have absolutely no idea what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contemporary accounts<\/a>\u00a0suggest Spindler directly coordinated with Boris Yeltsin at the time of a failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Butkevi\u010dius was also for\u00a0many years<\/a>\u00a0a \u201csenior fellow\u201d at the Institute for Statecraft, a shadowy \u201ccharity\u201d founded by Donnelly that manages a number of arm\u2019s length military and intelligence operations on behalf of the British state and NATO, including the now notorious Foreign Office black propaganda unit, the\u00a0Integrity Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leaked Initiative files name Butkevi\u010dius as the organization\u2019s key contact in Ukraine at the time of the country\u2019s 2019 election. Three years earlier, he was one of the \u201cescorting personnel\u201d for five Ukrainian intelligence operatives whisked to London by the Institute for Statecraft in order to brief the British military on Russian \u201chybrid warfare\u201d techniques. Alongside him was Vidmantas Eitutis, who at the time trained Ukraine\u2019s army to conduct \u201cactive counterintelligence operations\u201d in Luhansk.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the Kerch Bridge sabotage proposal commissioned by Donnelly, Ward asks whether the Russian military knew how vulnerable the bridge supposedly was, and \u201cwhat countermeasures could be expected\u201d in response to its destruction (see image above).<\/p>\n

The blitz of retaliatory missile strikes on Ukraine on October 10th provides a likely answer. It is also probable that if Ward\u2019s outline was followed, Moscow\u2019s reprisal would have been even more deadly,\u00a0putting the lives of countless Ukrainians \u2013 and Russians \u2013 at significant risk.<\/p>\n

Donnelly was clearly unmoved by such concerns, declaring the plans to be \u201cvery impressive indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A similar disregard for catastrophic consequences was evident in a private memo authored by Donnelly in March 2014, outlining \u201cmilitary measures\u201d that Ukraine should take following Moscow\u2019s seizure of Crimea.<\/p>\n

Stating that, \u201cif I were in charge I would get the following implemented,\u201d Donnelly advocated mining Sevastopol harbor using a \u201ccar ferry,\u201d destroying fighter jets on Crimean airfields \u201cas a gesture that they are serious,\u201d using a \u201cbig microwave anti-satellite weapon\u201d to take down Russian space installations, and turning to the West for oil and gas supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am trying to get this message across,\u201d he concluded. These prescriptions have yet to be implemented, perhaps because they risk triggering an apocalyptic situation. Indeed, such \u201cgestures\u201d would amount to brazen provocations against a nuclear power, from which Ukraine\u2019s oil and gas network was and remains exclusively designed to receive energy.<\/p>\n

Yet it appears Donnelly and those around him would be content to see World War III erupt over Crimea. In fact, as the leaked documents obtained by The Grayzone will continue to demonstrate, provoking conflict between the West and Russia has long-been one of his ultimate objectives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n