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Russian Retaliation! Will Moscow Strike Western ‘Decision-Making Centers’ After Storm Shadow Attack On Its Bridge?

The missile attack at the Chongar Bridge connecting Crimea with the Kherson Region on Thursday morning has now led to questions about how and if Russia will retaliate.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee’s Military Investigation Division for the Joint Group of Forces, the missile used in the attack was likely the British-French Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles developed by defense major MBDA.

Interestingly, the attack comes within two days of Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu declaring intelligence assessments about Ukraine possibly hitting Russian-held Crimea with “long-range US and British missiles.”

Even more coincidentally, Shoigu named the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and Storm Shadow as possible weapons Ukraine will use during a meeting with military officials. He then warned that Russia would strike “decision-making centers” in Ukraine in response. 

Now that Shoigu’s warnings and Russian intelligence have been proven right, questions arise about how can Moscow retaliate. 

Bridge Damaged But Repairable

The investigative committee said, “According to preliminary data, four unidentified missiles hit [the bridge],” he told reporters. According to the spokesman, missile fragments with “French markings” were found at the scene, pointing the finger of suspicion at the Storm Shadow. 

Acting Kherson governor Vladimir Saldo said the bridge would be repaired in a few days with the help of construction specialists from other Russian regions.




The hole on the Chongar Bridge that Russian specialists say is not severe and can be repaired quickly.

“Experts and builders from the Rostov Region have been dispatched here. As a construction engineer, I can see that regular traffic will be restored in a few days, and things will return to where they were before this morning,” a TASS report quoted Saldo as saying. He added that there was an alternative backup route and that only the bridge’s surface was damaged. 

Saldo also said four missiles were used in the attack, but videos of the strike showed only one missile diving down at high speed, hitting the bridge. 

Shoigu’s Prophecy 

While mentioning the “decision-making centers,” Shoigu pointed to bases and locations with Western and Ukrainian personnel in Ukrainian territory that coordinate strikes on the Russian-held territory.

Ukraine uses weapons like Storm Shadow now and before that, the HIMARS, High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM), and the Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) on Russian targets. It also employs naval kamikaze drones to hit Russian warships in the Black Sea. 

The Western weapons are also supported by its reconnaissance, surveillance, and Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) airborne assets like the RQ-4B Global Hawk drone, RC-135 Rivets, and E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (STARS) that provide targeting information.

Shoigu could therefore be effectively warning that locations in Ukraine having Western personnel training, assisting, and working with the Ukrainian military would be targeted.

Russia has conducted such attacks before, where NATO personnel have been unofficially present on the ground in command, control, and technical assistance roles in handling the communication with the above aircraft. 

“The use of these missiles outside the zone of our special military operation would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict and entail immediate strikes on decision-making centers in Ukraine territory,” said Shoigu.

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