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Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said on Tuesday that it had hit the Crimean Bridge with explosives planted underwater.
The Crimean Bridge is a pair of parallel bridges spanning the Kerch Strait between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai in Russia and the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea. The Crimean Bridge was built between 2016 and 2018 after the peninsula had become a part of Russia in 2014 in what Moscow describes as a referendum but which is largely viewed as annexation internationally. Ukraine claims sovereignty over Crimea and says Russia built the bridge illegally.
“The Security Service of Ukraine carried out a new unique special operation and struck the Crimean Bridge for the third time – this time underwater!” the SBU wrote on Telegram, CNN reported.
The operation came after the SBU on Sunday launched a major air raid on Russia’s fleet of strategic bombers across Russia.
The SBU said its agents had mined the piers of the road-and-rail Crimean Bridge, also called the Kerch Bridge, and detonated the first explosive at 4.44 a.m. Tuesday. The whole operation had taken several months, it added, according to CNN.
The agency said it had used 1,100 kilograms of explosives which “severely damaged” the underwater pillars supporting the bridge, marking the third Ukrainian strike on the bridge since Russia launched its military offensive in Ukraine in 2022.
Russian news agencies said the bridge is closed for traffic but did not elaborate on the reason.