The Crimean Bridge, the only link between the annexed peninsula and Russia, has suffered damage to its spans, Russia’s Transport Ministry said Monday as multiple Telegram channels reported strikes on the bridge and a local official confirmed at least two deaths,
CNN reports.
“There is damage to the roadway on spans of the Crimean Bridge,” the Transport Ministry said on Telegram.
The spans on a bridge are the lengths between the support piers.
Images showed a partial collapse of a section of the roadway portion of the bridge, which also carries railroad tracks.
On his Telegram channel, Vladimir Konstantinov, head of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea, blamed the damage to the bridge on a Ukrainian attack.
“Tonight the terrorist regime in Kyiv committed a new crime – it attacked the Crimean bridge,” Konstantinov said.
“The railroad track was not damaged by the strike,” Konstantinov added.
As with previous alleged attacks in Crimea, the Ukrainian government has been opaque in its messaging. But the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) hinted that the Ukrainian government was responsible.
In a statement on Telegram, threaded to an October 2022 post referring to a previous attack on the Crimean Bridge, the SBU said: “Nightingale, my dear brother, The bridge has gone to sleep again. And once… Twice!”
Last October, a huge blast partially damaged the bridge, causing parts of it to collapse.
Sergey Aksenov, the Russia-appointed head of Crimea, said an “emergency incident” had been reported, halting traffic on the bridge, which serves as a vital logistical node for Moscow’s military in its war against Ukraine.
Two strikes were allegedly carried out around 3 a.m. local time, damaging part of the bridge, according to the Telegram channel Grey Zone, which supports the Wagner mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Explosions were heard around 3:04 a.m. and 3:20 a.m. local time, Grey Zone and popular Crimean blogger ‘TalipoV Online Z’ said on Telegram.
CNN is unable to verify the reports.
