Completely excluded from any account in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal was the fact that senior US officials not only publicly authorized, but a former US official publicly encouraged, the attack to take place.
"Bomb Russia's bridge to Crimea, Ukraine urged," read the headline in the Times of London on July 7, reporting the statements of US General Philip Breedlove, NATO's former Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
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The next day, July 8, clearly referencing Breedlove's comments, a reporter identified only as "Howard" asked at a Pentagon background briefing, "can you talk about any preclusions? Would the — would the Kerch Bridge be not precluded as a potential target?"*
The defense official replied, "As I said, there aren't any preclusions that I'm aware of about the Ukrainians fighting on their sovereign territory against Russia."
At a press briefing held this morning, The War Zone asked a senior U.S. official whether or not there were any preclusions about the use of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, in Ukraine against certain targets. Speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, the official responded by saying that they couldn't reveal any further information about specific targets, but that "Russian forces' capabilities and logistics nodes within Ukraine are absolutely fantastic" targets. The War Zone followed up, asking if there were any hesitations about using the HIMARs against the Kerch Bridge. The official responded as follows.
"As I said, there aren't any preclusions that I'm aware of on Ukrainians fighting on their sovereign territory against Russia."
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