It is amusing to see "trolling" casually used in the correct, modern sense in a BBC article. Doubly so given serious circumstances surrounding it use.
Also I find it hard to believe Russia destroyed the mysterious drone boat that washed up. Seems like a colossal waste if true.
Edit: I also wonder if it is some kind of response to nord stream getting blown up, like "Just look at that, some of your infrastructure out at sea can mysteriously blow up too with no one claiming responsibility, funny isn't it?"
It seems like a completely valid military target regardless of nordstream. It'd certainly be in Ukraine's interest in blowing up the rest of the rail and road connections to Russia, I'm guessing trade relations will be pretty strained for some time.
This bridge was completed in 2018, and has only carried freight trains since 2020. So Ukraine has never used this bridge.. it was only built to tie Crimea closer to Russia after its annexation.
It absolutely is. I just find the timing interesting since it happened soon after. Its not like the bridge just became an available target, its been there the whole time. Still, those responsible may not have been able to pull it off until now so it's probably just a coincidence.
> Edit: I also wonder if it is some kind of response to nord stream getting blown up, like "Just look at that, some of your infrastructure out at sea can mysteriously blow up too with no one claiming responsibility, funny isn't it?"
Do you seriously think Russia blew up a pipeline that it had complete control over? Why would Russia give up leverage like that?
> "This is a concrete manifestation of the conflict between the FSB [Russia's internal intelligence service] / PMC [private military contractors, like the Wagner Group] on the one hand, and the Ministry of Defence / general staff of the Russian Federation on the other hand," he said.
> Did Mr Podolyak know something everyone else didn't? Or was he, perhaps, trolling Moscow, playing on extremely raw nerves exposed by Russia's recent setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine?
The use of trolling here isn't to carefully a systematically search for an area of something. The use is much more akin to the internet's version of the word, which has the meaning of 'saying something meant to bring an extreme response from another targeted party'.
If there was a mention of investigators trolling the area for evidence of bomb vehicles, I'm with you, even though that feels like an uncommon usage in a BBC article. But this does feel different to me.
Language evolves. People have come to understand the difference between windows in a house, and windows in the context of a computer. I'm sure you understand this.
The internet slang variant is in dictionaries now so the usage is correct! And modern, seeing as it was added post-internet era. The amusement comes purely from seeing it in the BBC, an institution known for their formal English who at one point standardized the accents of their presenters.
The images of the damage seem to thoroughly rule out the boat theory. There's clear evidence of lateral shockwaves on the upper-side of the deck (the guardrails are basically completely blown off), and the underside doesn't have the same lateral damage--the catwalks are mostly intact, for example.
I'm also skeptical of missile theory--if you're targeting this with a missile, and you have the precision of such, the place to blow up the bridge wouldn't be where it was hit, but on the high portion of the bridge, where replacing damaged sections would be hard.
The truck bomb does seem the most likely option to me.
Like the article points out, CCTV footage of the explosion shows that it did not originate from the truck; there is a bright light above and to the right of it the instant before the explosion.
They don't actually show any frames of the footage illustrating what they mean, but I've seen one explanation that what was seen is actually an artifact of the camera: the brightness of the frame changes mid-capture, and that it makes look like the explosion is happening elsewhere.
When I moved from California to New Mexico I hauled a cargo trailer crammed full of my possessions across Hoover Dam. A cop pulled me over at the entrance and had me open it up. When he saw how full it was, he poked around it a bit, and told me he really shouldn't let me through, but go ahead, and don't do that again. It would have been several more hours to drive down to Needles and cross there.
In the EU at borders lorries and freight trains are x-rayed. I've only crossed the external EU border by land a couple of times, but lorries had to drive at a constant speed (without stopping!) through a metal archway, which presumably was the x-ray machine.
I haven't seen a similar system near vulnerable infrastructure, but it might exist. It may be overkill for a lightly trafficked road.
If they had prints available the next day it would be telling. This bridge has been talked about as a next target since the flagship was hit. Not surprising there was art available.
Are you suggesting the Ukrainian postal service pulled it off? This was months in the making; I bet they already have projects for the liberation of Crimea ready.
There are burnmarks high up on the pillars of the train bridge but not on the lower parts. This would suggest that the explosion happened on top of the bridge.
I believe the burn marks you see on the train bridge would mostly be due to the fuel train cars that ignited shortly after the blast on the car bridge… that said I’m no expert just saw the cctv footage on youtube…
I've been amusing myself with mental scenarios of the trained Russian attack-dolphins detecting Ukrainian frogmen and deciding that they're not getting decent enough fish for this bollocks and swimming away looking casual.
Occam's razor leads me to the conclusion that it was most likely done by the Ukrainian intelligence agencies and that the truck was loaded with explosives.
Question is did the driver know or was he unavare.
For me this is weird because the truck was coming from Russia and there are checkpoints too, so Ukrainians would need to have somehow access to explosives inside Russia. In theory you would find more Ukrainian sympathy in Crimea and not in Russia, but I do not know that area of the world so maybe the level of incompetence in Russia is even larger then I thought.
It could be that truck, but it could be the Putin "clever" tactics to claim Ukrainians are terrorists(for some reason Russians started to use the terrorist word when a military target is bombed but when they bomb civilian apartments and malls it is just the old soviet incompetence excuse)
Could be a false flag, we don't know now and I don't think we will get the full truth.
If it was the Ukranians they would never admit to it as the bridge is used by civilians and civilians died in the explosion. The same reason why Russia won't admit to its own terrorist actions in Ukraine.
As for the explosives, besides corruption, one could improvise in all sorts of manners, especially with the know-how and resources of a state actor.
How did it lead to the truck being the source of the explosives though? How did they time the explosion to the train's crossing so well?
Feels to me like attacking from the ocean would have a higher probability of success than trying to sneak a truck packed with explosives onto a bridge that (one assumes) the Russians are very watchful over.
By being packed with explosives. The video of the inspection of the truck before it crossed the bridge shows a not very thorough inspection and it was not X-rayed.
Also the underside of the bridge is untact as far as burn mark go.
Readit News
Also I find it hard to believe Russia destroyed the mysterious drone boat that washed up. Seems like a colossal waste if true.
Edit: I also wonder if it is some kind of response to nord stream getting blown up, like "Just look at that, some of your infrastructure out at sea can mysteriously blow up too with no one claiming responsibility, funny isn't it?"
[0] https://mobile.twitter.com/Ukraine/status/157863482541765017...
Do you seriously think Russia blew up a pipeline that it had complete control over? Why would Russia give up leverage like that?
The "correct" definition hasn't changed:
> carefully and systematically search an area for something.
Not sure how you came to the idea that internet slang is anything other than internet slang.
That is trawling, not trolling.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/troll#Etymology_2
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trawl#Verb
> Did Mr Podolyak know something everyone else didn't? Or was he, perhaps, trolling Moscow, playing on extremely raw nerves exposed by Russia's recent setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine?
The use of trolling here isn't to carefully a systematically search for an area of something. The use is much more akin to the internet's version of the word, which has the meaning of 'saying something meant to bring an extreme response from another targeted party'.
If there was a mention of investigators trolling the area for evidence of bomb vehicles, I'm with you, even though that feels like an uncommon usage in a BBC article. But this does feel different to me.
I'm also skeptical of missile theory--if you're targeting this with a missile, and you have the precision of such, the place to blow up the bridge wouldn't be where it was hit, but on the high portion of the bridge, where replacing damaged sections would be hard.
The truck bomb does seem the most likely option to me.
Now I know what he was afraid of.
I haven't seen a similar system near vulnerable infrastructure, but it might exist. It may be overkill for a lightly trafficked road.
Art exhibition of x-rays of lorries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yk0Rb8XNyM
A few seconds showing an inspector looking in detail at an x-ray of a train: https://youtu.be/LQdtJ9skyuY?t=219
In fact, this looks very similar, in California. I haven't see this car-sized version in the EU: https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/dhs-x-ray-scanners-could-b...
Are you implying cops are on heightened alert for bridge detonations in the US? If so, why?
I'm assuming Photoshopping up a taunting stamp design is easy and fun when you're patriotically inclined.
Zelensky is a former actor who clearly understands PR, so it is not unlikely that he would plan something of that sort.
We'll know it was the Ukrainian postal service when someone asks Putin to sign to confirm delivery of a whole parcel of humiliation.
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Question is did the driver know or was he unavare.
It could be that truck, but it could be the Putin "clever" tactics to claim Ukrainians are terrorists(for some reason Russians started to use the terrorist word when a military target is bombed but when they bomb civilian apartments and malls it is just the old soviet incompetence excuse)
Not necessarily. It is close to the Caucasian region and Russia has been involved in hostilities there for centuries.
As for the explosives, besides corruption, one could improvise in all sorts of manners, especially with the know-how and resources of a state actor.
Feels to me like attacking from the ocean would have a higher probability of success than trying to sneak a truck packed with explosives onto a bridge that (one assumes) the Russians are very watchful over.
Also the underside of the bridge is untact as far as burn mark go.
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