Gavin Grey: Europe Correspondent on Ukraine hitting a bridge connecting Russia and the Crimean Peninsula

Ukraine's struck a critical bridge connecting Russia and the Crimean Peninsula. 

It's security service claims agents mined the supports of the bridge with more than one-thousand kilograms of explosives, severely damaging the foundations. 

Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey told Ryan Bridge the bridge is a hated symbol of Russian occupation for Ukraine. 

He says it's also a vital piece of infrastructure for Russia. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now Gavin gray are UK europe correspondent, Good morning, given
hither right now Hurt Builders. This is the far right leader.
He's pulled out of the Dutch governments now collapsed.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, it was always a rather fractious coalition and what
had been going on was an increasing sort of a
split between those different government parties and I'm afraid many
were not surprised by what we're now getting. So we're
likely to get a snap election in the Netherlands. What
was happening was that the far right Dutch leader, Hurt

(00:33):
Builders put in ten additional asylum measures, that's what he
had asked for for the rest of the coalition to
vote for. That included a freeze on asylum applications, halting
the construction of reception centers, and limiting family reunification, by
which I mean one person gets into the Netherlands and
then they are allowed to invite the rest of their

(00:54):
family in. Now the others it seems we're never going
to agree to this. They didn't, and then Builders has
walked out and as the largest party, his anti immigration
far right PVV party has now left the coalition. That
looks very likely now we're going to get this snap election. Some, however,
critics are pointing to the fact that in opinion polls

(01:15):
the PBB party is losing support. Some would say, and
perhaps this is an attempt to gain that support back.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
They're getting a little too close to the center for
the voters lacking. Let's go to Ukraine. I mean another
incredible military feat for them. They have blown up a
bridge connecting Russia and Crimea.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yes, so, just twenty four hours after the so called
Spider's Web operation in which one hundred smuggled drones hit
a third of Russia's bomber planes deep in the country,
today an attack on Crimea's Kirch Bridge. Now to be clear,
this is the bridge that connects Russia to Crimea, Crimea
which used to be part of Ukraine, and it is

(01:57):
absolutely hated. It's a hated symbol for Ukrainian The bridge
opened to much fanfare by Vladimir Putin in twenty eighteen,
and it has been attacked several times. In October three
years ago, a fire broke out on the bridge where
a truck loaded with a bomb exploded. In July twenty
twenty three, Vladimir Putin vowed to respond when two people
were killed when Ukraine hit the bridge with drones. Now

(02:20):
it would appear that some divers have attached underwater explosives
to the foundations. Their pretty dramatic footage has been circulated.
There was an initial explosion, there was a little bit
of assessment, and then Russia reopened it to Russian traffic,
which is instrumental incidentally in rearming and restocking supplies for

(02:42):
the attacking force in Ukraine. But no sooner had the
traffic been opened up again, there was another explosion, and
this one seemed to cause more damage. However, just said
that we now believe that the bridge is back reopen,
just hours after those two attacks on the foundations.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Gavin, thank you very much for that. Gavin Gray are
UKA Europe correspondent. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.