Russia said two Ukrainian drones caused explosions that damaged its flagship bridge to Crimea, killing two people and causing the suspension of road and rail traffic.
“Two Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicles attacked the Crimean bridge” in the early hours of Monday, the National Antiterrorism Center said. The attack that damaged a section of the road bridge was carried out by “Ukrainian special services,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
State television showed part of the roadway had buckled after the explosions on the 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge connecting Russia to Crimea across the Kerch Strait, which were the most serious since a massive blast in October. They took place hours before Russia announced it was terminating a deal permitting Black Sea grain exports from Ukraine that was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
Ukraine Grain-Export Deal Collapses as Russia Terminates It
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision was unrelated to the bridge incident. Russia indicated last week that it was likely to withdraw from the agreement.
President Vladimir Putin received reports from Federal Security Service chief Alexander Bortnikov, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin and transport officials about the condition of the bridge and plans a video conference Monday to discuss repair work, Peskov told reporters.
Two people died and a teenage girl was injured in a car on the bridge at the time of the attack, the Investigative Committee said.
Ukraine didn’t directly claim involvement. Putin called construction of the bridge a “historical mission” for Russia before it opened in 2018, four years after he annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
Train services later resumed across the bridge, state-run Tass news service reported, citing Russia’s Transport Ministry. Ferries would also be used to transport trucks between the peninsula and Russia, according to local officials.
October’s blast also damaged part of the road bridge and temporarily halted rail traffic that’s used to supply Russian forces in the peninsula and in southern Ukrainian areas facing a counteroffensive from Kyiv’s troops to reclaim the territories. Putin blamed that attack on Kyiv and Russia later unleashed some of the most intense barrages of strikes against Ukraine since the first days of its February 2022 invasion.
With many Russian tourists stranded in Crimea because of damage to the road bridge, Sergey Aksyonov, the peninsula’s Kremlin-installed governor, urged people in a Telegram post Monday to seek alternative routes across Russian-occupied land in southern Ukraine.
The damage was reported after the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it had destroyed seven drones and two underwater vehicles in Crimea, accusing Ukraine of a “terrorist attack.”
(Updates with Putin response in third paragraph)
