A “storm of the century” has swept across Crimea and razed parts of Putin’s fortress. This force of nature could further weaken the occupiers.
Simferopol – Vladimir Putin (SUB) may be reminded of “Waterloo” right now; The same thing as this small Belgian community where Napoleon, the Emperor of the French, experienced his military disaster before the eyes of the world, Crimea could become for the dictator from Russia. Not only that the defenders in the… Ukraine war Showing his teeth with their counteroffensive, he is now also drawing the wrath of the forces of nature: Newsweek reports of hurricane-force winds and ten-meter-high waves that are currently raging in a storm over the Black Sea and crashing onto the coast of the Crimean Peninsula. Meteorologists call the storm “Bettina”.
The storm is apparently also roaring mercilessly against the Russian fortifications with which Putin’s army has clung to this part of Ukrainian territory in violation of international law and has occupied it for almost ten years. Newsweek quoted an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Anton Gerashchenko, who claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that the storm was flooding trenches dug by the Russian army on the beaches. Newsweek: “According to information from media in Crimea, the water in Yevpatoria washed away the coastal defense line, technical buildings and firing positions.” According to Moscow, almost two million people in Russia and the occupied Ukrainian territories were without electricity on Monday. Ukrainian authorities reported power outages in over 2,000 communities.
The Russian state news agency Ria Novosti wrote of the “strongest storm since records began” in Crimea. There was even talk of a “storm of the century” in the Ukrainian media.
Prestige Object: Russia’s losses are exacerbated by “Storm of the Century”.
This storm could become a welcome combatant for the Ukrainian defenders and exacerbate Putin’s losses. Both opponents see Crimea as the linchpin of the Ukraine war because, since the annexation in 2014, the Russians have refused to recognize Crimea and its capital Simferopol as Ukrainian national territory and to treat them accordingly autonomously. On the contrary, they used this period to develop Crimea as their prestige object into a military fortress, to create airfields, to station massive air defense systems and to allow the Black Sea Fleet to operate from there.
Military economist Marcus Keupp explains this in an interview with the daily News: “Crimea is not only the logistical center, it is also the military powerhouse of the entire Russian operation against Ukraine, and that is why it will be the grand finale of the war and possibly faster than some people expected.” The Russian ones Efforts seem to prove this: The Washington Post wants the Russian fortifications in images from the satellite service Maxar have located exactly and added more than 30 kilometers of trenches in the Crimea.
According to Russian media, the military has more than 200 objects spread across the peninsula: air bases, ammunition depots, barracks. Tens of thousands of soldiers are reportedly stationed there. The port of Sevastopol is the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Everywhere there, the Russian invading army is currently apparently suffering losses without enemy action. On his X channel (formerly) Twitter, military analyst Hi Sutton posts images of destroyed scaffolding and destroyed concrete. All of this could have military origins. However, more detailed information about the locations is missing, although Newsweek referred to this in his report.
“Crimean Fortress”: primary target of the Ukrainian counteroffensive
Current satellite images of Maxar provided by the Washington Post published show the extensive network of Russian fortifications being built on the Crimean Peninsula and along its routes from occupied southern Ukraine. Russian troops occupy a land bridge stretching from the Dnipro River to the Russian border. Important land connections run through the occupied cities of Melitopol and Mariupol. The corridor is one of the Kremlin’s few tangible successes in the war so far.
Crimea is separated from the mainland by the Perekop Isthmus, forming a nine-kilometer-wide corridor as a border between Ukraine and the Russian-annexed Crimea along the southern border of the Kherson region. Russia has severed these land connections with a solid metal fence 50 kilometers long and more than two meters high. Only two roads – the M17 and M18 highways – lead to Crimea from the north. The western M17 is now lined with Russian trenches and fortifications, while the eastern M18 can be effectively closed by destroying a single bridge.
The Crimean Bridge, on which the Russian domestic secret service appears to be concentrating its activities, continues to stand defiantly in the storm. Vasyl Maliuk sees the Crimean Bridge already falling into rubble and is bluntly threatening Russia. Without the Crimean Bridge, the lifeblood of Vladimir Putin’s invading army would be severed and the war in Ukraine might actually be decided. Again Focus reports, Maliuk, as head of the Ukrainian domestic secret service SBU, stated clearly in a television documentary that Russia’s unrestricted access to the peninsula was “doomed to fail” in the future; new attacks from Ukraine are imminent. Ultimately, in his words, the bridge is “doomed.” It would then also be the greatest loss of Moscow’s imperialist appearance before the world public.
Billionaire grave: Crimea will be Putin’s “Waterloo”
The storm over Crimea could actually cost the Russian empire its daring commitment there. Again Mirror As had already speculated shortly after the annexation of Crimea, the peninsula was costing the Kremlin “around six to seven billion dollars (5.5 to 6.5 billion euros) per year”. The Mirror published the assessment of the former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who added this sum from stagnant world trade and the decline of the ruble. On top of that, according to Kudrin, there are indirect costs such as losses due to capital flight or the loss of trust among investors. These could add up to up to 200 billion euros in the next three to four years – that was in 2015. In the meantime, Putin has also deployed an army and ignited a firestorm.
By hitting the invaders hard financially, “Century Storm” “Bettina” could play the Ukrainians into their hands. After the storm, it would be interesting to know what resources Vladimir Putin would have to use to restore the status quo, as Claudia Major, security expert at Foundation Science and Politicsthe ARD“Tagesschau” explained – as if this storm were a puzzle piece of a sophisticated strategy by Ukraine: “We see a meticulous, systematic approach aimed at making Crimea untenable for Russia,” analyzed the political scientist. Major continued: “Combined with the attacks on the Kerch Bridge and other approaches to Crimea, that is really the goal: to make Crimea untenable and, in the long term, to get Russia to give it up.”
The devastation of the fortress may have contributed to this and brought Vladimir Putin closer to his “Waterloo”. (Karsten Hinzmann)