Russia has deployed one of its Pantsir-S1 air defense systems to defend the Kerch Bridge, a strategically vital structure used by Russia to connect with occupied Crimea, satellite images appear to show.
The development was reported on Wednesday by Crimean Wind, a pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel, which published satellite imagery of the air defense system on the Kerch Strait Bridge on Wednesday.
The bridge serves as a critical supply route for Russia's forces and is crucial to sustaining Moscow's military offensives in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine struck the 19-kilometer (nearly 12-mile) road and rail bridge in October 2022 and again in July 2023. Kyiv has vowed future strikes on the structure as it seeks to recapture the peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry via email for comment.
"Russia has placed a Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile system right on the Kerch Bridge. It has been visible on satellite images for at least a month," Crimean Wind said. Newsweek could not independently verify the images.
Russia's Pantsir-S1 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and missile system has been used by the military throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is believed to be worth in the area of $15 million.
The mobile, short-range system is designed for use against aircraft, cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions and for supporting other air defense units against larger strikes.
Atesh, a pro-Kyiv military partisan group of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, said in July that Russia had begun redeploying air defenses to shield the Kerch Strait Bridge.
"The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation began to massively transfer equipment closer to the Kerch Bridge," the group said in a post on its Telegram channel on July 25.
Russia is "actively redeploying the surviving air defense installations, aircraft, radars and all military facilities from the western part of Crimea," the Atesh movement said.
"The Russians are in dire need of air defense systems," it added. "They are able to cover only one area of the peninsula."
The Crimean bridge was closed to traffic on Thursday amid a reported drone attack near the port city of Sevastopol.
"In Sevastopol, the military is repelling an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, air defense is working," Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed leader in Sevastopol, said on his Telegram channel.
"According to preliminary information, 2 UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] have already been shot down over the sea. All services have been put on combat alert."
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