Explosions on the Kerch Bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea have led to the collapse of one span, according to local reports.
Russian officials admitted that the bridge, a key supply line for Russian troops in Ukraine, was damaged in an “emergency“ situation which killed two people and injured a child.
Video shared by local media on Monday appeared to show a section of road on the bridge had split and was sloping to one side.
At least two Ukrainian media cited unnamed sources as saying Ukraine's domestic security agency and navy were behind the incident in the early hours of Monday.
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne and media outlet Ukrainska Pravda gave few details of an operation they said involved the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the navy, but Suspilne cited its sources as saying the bridge was attacked with underwater drones.
Sergei Aksyonov, a Russia-installed governor, said the “emergency” occurred on the 145th pillar of the bridge which links the Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar.
Russia’s transport ministry said that there was damage to the road on the bridge closer to the Crimean Peninsula, but there was no damage to the pillars. It did not say what caused the damage.
Ukrainian media said there had been blasts on the bridge and reports claimed that at least one span had collapsed, though this could not be confirmed.
Traffic was stopped from using the Russian-built bridge to Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
Video footage showed no traffic on the bridge.
The 19 km (12-mile) road and rail bridge has been a pride infrastructure project of President Vladimir Putin, who drove a Mercedes across the bridge in 2022 after it was repaired following an explosion.
Russia’s Grey Zone channel, a heavily followed Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner mercenary group, reported that there were two strikes on the bridge at 03:04 a.m. (0004 GMT) and 03:20 a.m.
The parents of a girl were killed and their daughter was injured in a passenger car on the bridge early on Monday, said Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in southern Russia. He did not say how the people were killed.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Odesa military administration, posted a photo on his Telegram account of what seemed to show part of the bridge broken. It was not immediately clear whether that was related to any attack.
Russian media publish a video of the Kerch bridge, reportedly filmed from a train on the railway part of the bridge. pic.twitter.com/1GF5FS5Jf4
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 17, 2023
George Barros, an analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said on Twitter that if the bridge was seriously damaged it would significantly impact Russian supply lines.
“Russia will only have one ground supply line - the coastal highway on the Sea of Azov - to sustain (or evacuate) its tens of thousands of troops in occupied Kherson & Crimea if UKR manages to degrade/destroy the bridge,” said Barros.
It was not immediately clear what the incident on the bridge would mean for the UN-brokered deal that allows the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain. Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s top grain exporters.
The UN deal is due to expire on Monday, with the last ship to travel under the deal leaving the port of Odesa early on Sunday, according to maritime experts.
The Crimean bridge was damaged by an explosion last October, in an attack that the Kremlin said had been orchestrated by Ukrainian security forces. Ukraine admitted only indirectly to the attack months later.
Putin’s ally Arkady Rotenberg’s company built the vast structure, which is Europe’s longest bridge. Putin has long lauded the project, boasting at one point that Russian Tsars and Soviet leaders had dreamed of building it but never did.
