The Ukrainian Security Service has reportedly claimed responsibility for an attack that damaged the main bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia.
Officials closed the 12-mile (19km) bridge early today following what they described as an ’emergency’.
The health ministry of the Krasnodar region, at the eastern end of the Kerch Bridge, said two people had died on the structure in an incident that also injured their daughter.
Sources told BBC Russian and Ukrainian news site censor.net that the attack was carried out as a ‘special operation’ by Ukraine’s naval forces and Security Service.
Separately, the Russian-installed head of the Crimean parliament Vladimir Konstantinov also said Ukraine was responsible, blaming it on the ‘terrorist regime in Kyiv’.
The incident prompted immediate speculation on messaging app Telegram, with pro-Kremlin channel Readovka suggesting ‘a missile attack was carried out on the Crimean bridge, as a result of which the 145th support pillar collapsed’.
There has been no confirmation that any of the 600 pillars on the bridge have collapsed, and Russia’s transport ministry said only the road surface was affected.
A video believed to be filmed this morning shows a large gap between sections of road.
Governor Sergei Aksyonov said he expected rail traffic on the bridge to resume within a matter of hours, though no such assurances were given for road traffic.
On Telegram, he wrote: ‘An emergency occurred in the area of the 145th support from the [Russian side of the bridge].
‘Measures are being taken to restore the situation. I ask residents and guests of the peninsula to refrain from traveling through the Crimean bridge and, for security reasons, choose an alternative land route through new regions.’
The Kerch Bridge is a vital supply route for the war in Ukraine, providing rail and road links to the rest of Russia through the region it annexed in 2014.
Opened in 2018, it has been described as Vladimir Putin’s flagship infrastructure project and a major feat of engineering.
It was damaged in October by a truck bomb on its roadway, and only fully reopened in February.
Several question remain about who carried out last year’s attack and how, but it was celebrated by the Ukrainian government and the country’s postal service released a stamp to commemorate the event.
Oleksiy Danilov, who leads Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, posted a video of Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President’ alongside a clip of the explosion, which happened the day after Putin turned 70.
