Russian Ministry of Defense passes off an old bridge pylon as a destroyed “barge carrying a Ukrainian landing force”

The Russian Defense Ministry has reported on a major success of Russian troops in Ukraine - the destruction of a barge carrying a special operations landing force of the Ukrainian intelligence that was trying to seize the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The ministry's official Telegram channel published a video showing helicopters firing at an object they called a barge.

The object being fired at indeed resembles a barge from a distance, but without deck superstructures, i.e. a non-self-propelled one. Such a barge can only move with the help of a tug or pusher, but neither is present in the shot. What was the point of landing on an unguided barge, it is unclear.

The Telegram channel Grey Zone was able to identify the “barge.” It was the pylon of a bridge over the Dnipro near Energodar, built in 1943 by the German occupiers and blown up six months later by German engineers during retreat. In that form the rest of the bridge had been standing for 78 years, until the victorious strike of the Russian helicopters.

We can only say that Russian troops have finally achieved tangible success in the denazification of Ukraine: they have damaged an object built by the Nazis during the occupation, albeit unused and unnecessary to anyone.