Participant of the events tells why the bridges in Chongar were not blown up
7 July, 2023 Chonhar checkpoint. Photo from open sources A Ukrainian military man who served on the border with Crimea told journalists why the bridges in Chonhar were not blown up.
Senior Sergeant Ivan Sestryvatovskyi shared with Ukrainian Pravda that Chonhar bridges had been mined since 2014. However, in February 2022, the bridges connecting the temporarily occupied Crimea with mainland Ukraine were not blown up. Among them is the Chonhar Bridge, although it was also mined.
The witnesses have not yet been questioned in this case. Sestryvatovskyi recalls that the full-scale invasion from Crimea began with mortar fire.
Senior sergeant Ivan Sestryvatovskyi. Photo credits: Ukrainian Pravda
At the time he and his fellow soldiers had already prepared everything for blowing up the bridges.
The order should have been given by the commander of the position, and he should have been ordered by higher command. Everything was ready to blow up the bridges in Chonhar. Ivan was waiting for the order, but there was no longer a connection.
Mortar rounds were exploding at the positions, it was impossible to recognize the sound on the radio.
Orders
The Senior Sergeant made the decision to blow up the bridge on his own. He did not know whether the commander had been ordered to blow up the bridges in Chonhar. "I tried to detonate the explosives, but the explosion did not happen.
I'm not a sapper, but there are two theories: either a sabotage group was landed, or the wiring was damaged by mortars fire. I have only two theories. There are no others," explained the Senior Sergeant.
The Russian forces offensive directions in February 2022
Sestryvatovskyi noted: he made at least three detonation attempts, checked the wires and the presence of obvious errors, but the explosion still did not happen. "I'm not a sapper, but there are two options here. Either a sabotage group was landed, or the detonation wires were damaged by mortar shelling," the Sergeant recalls.
After that, the serviceman left the explosive position in a civilian car with two conscripts. While leaving, Ivan was injured: the car was blown off the road under mortar fire. He tried to build a route on his own to withdraw to the positions of his unit.
They were joined by three more border guards who did not have time to leave. But at 4 p.m. on February 24, the Russians surrounded the servicemen and took them prisoner. The soldier said that before he was captured, he managed to call the commander and report on the location and number of Russian convoys.
"For my part, I did my best," says the Sergeant.
Senior sergeant Ivan Sestryvatovskyi. Photo credits: Ukrainian Pravda
The prisoners were first sent to Crimea. The conditions of detention there were normal, but after transportation to Russia, "real hell began".
The military man recalls that there were regular interrogations, as well as torture. The events in Chonhar in Ukraine have been under investigation for over a year. However, Ivan has not yet been interrogated.
He believes that blowing up the bridges would temporarily hinder the movement of enemy convoys, but the Russians were preparing for the war, so the arrangement of pontoon crossings would take a few hours. The serviceman says that people should know about the events in Chonhar, so he decided to tell about them publicly. As previously reported, on June 22 of this year, the Chonhar Bridge was partially damaged in the occupied Crimea.
It passes through the Chonhar Strait, connecting Crimea and the Kherson region.