Top pro-Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov is demanding a brutal Stalinist response to ‘plunge Ukraine into dark times’ and round up all Russians against total war in the wake of the humiliating hit on the Crimean Bridge.
Alluding to an enemy within, Solovyov called for a return of the notorious Stalin-era SMERSH counter-intelligence to crush all internal opposition to a full-scale war against Ukraine. SMERSH, whose motto was ‘Death to Spies’, was a conglomeration of counterintelligence agencies used by Stalin to root out and obliterate those trying to subvert his regime during and after World War II.
‘It’s time to remember Soviet military training and act decisively and creatively,’ Solovyov said. ‘Not responding to the enemy’s actions, but breaking their plans, striking unexpected blows in directions where the enemy is not expecting them.
‘Ukraine should be plunged into dark times. Bridges, dams, railways, thermal power plants and other infrastructure facilities should be destroyed throughout Ukraine. ‘The country should switch to a military mode – entirely. This should include SMERSH making a return,’ Solovyov declared. ‘Everything for the front, everything for victory.’
Meanwhile, a pair of Russian governors spoke of their desire for revenge following the attack on the Kerch bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia, with one deputy claiming that devastating Sarmat missiles will target Ukrainian cities. The deputy governor of Russia’s southern Stavropol region Valery Chernitsov exclaimed: ‘Ukrainians, leave your cities, especially the large ones. Because a big surprise is waiting for you. Sarmat missiles are ready to strike,’ in a menacing video posted on Twitter.
Crimea’s Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov declared there is a ‘healthy desire to seek revenge’ following the explosion which destroyed parts of the Kerch bridge yesterday morning and killed three people. ‘The situation is manageable – it’s unpleasant, but not fatal,’ Aksyonov said of the bridge which constitutes a prestigious symbol of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula and a key supply route to forces battling in southern Ukraine.
‘Of course, emotions have been triggered and there is a healthy desire to seek revenge.’ Rocket attacks have already rained down on the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia since the bridge explosion, killing more than a dozen people late last night and early this morning.
The strikes came as Russia’s deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin deployed a team of divers to inspect the structure’s underwater foundations for further damage and to search for evidence. The divers began work at 6 am this morning and are expected to spend the entire day combing the area underwater to ensure the bridge is structurally sound.
Saturday’s explosion on the bridge prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no claim of responsibility, though it is widely thought to have been of Ukrainian origin. The bridge is a major artery for the Russian forces that control most of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region and for the Russian naval port of Sevastopol.
But Aksyonov claimed the peninsula had a month’s worth of fuel and more than two months’ worth of food, while Russia’s defence ministry said its forces in southern Ukraine could be ‘fully supplied’ through existing land and sea routes. Rail traffic was restored to the bridge late last night, meaning it is unlikely the destruction will dramatically hinder Russian supply routes.
A leading Ukrainian presidential aide claimed this morning the Kerch Strait crossing carnage may have been ordered by one of Vladimir Putin’s warring commanders. Mykhailo Podolyak alleged that Russia’s FSB secret service and the defence ministry are at loggerheads in a bitter dogfight over the botched war and are trying to undermine one another’s credibility. (SOURCE)
