Ukraine has detonated a big underwater blast targeting the key road and rail bridge connecting the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia, damaging its underwater supports.
The operation, claimed by Kyiv’s SBU security service, is the second high-profile operation by Ukraine in days, striking significant Russian assets after a sophisticated drone raid on Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet on Sunday.
The attack came as Ukraine confirmed it had been invited to the Nato summit in the Netherlands later this month, after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned it would be a “victory” for Russia if it was not present.
The latest strike on the 12-mile-long Kerch Bridge – a prestige project of Russian president Vladimir Putin, which he opened in 2018 – comes amid what appear to be determined efforts by Ukraine to change the narrative promoted by US president Donald Trump’s administration that Kyiv holds few cards in the war.
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The mining of the bridge, which is heavily defended by Russian forces, follows the audacious long-range drone attack on airbases deep inside Russia, which Mr Zelenskiy claimed had damaged “34 per cent of [Russia’s] strategic cruise missile carriers”.
In a further development on Tuesday, Russia’s state investigative committee accused Ukraine on Tuesday of carrying out “acts of terrorism” by blowing up two railway bridges in Russia over the weekend. It claimed seven people were killed and 113 injured, including children, when two trains crashed as a result of the attacks.
The SBU said the operation against the Kerch bridge had been planned for several months and involved the equivalent of more than a metric tonne of TNT, which it said had “severely damaged” the base of the bridge supports.
It is the third time that Ukraine has targeted the key logistics route since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
In October 2022, a truck exploded on the bridge, while in July 2023, the SBU said it had blown up a part of the bridge using an experimental naval drone. Russia repaired the damaged sections on both occasions.
The SBU published footage showing a blast coming out of the water and debris flying, along with a photograph of some damage to the side of the bridge.
Road traffic on the bridge linking Russia and the Crimean peninsula had been temporarily suspended, Russian authorities said on Telegram on Tuesday. Russian state media reported it had been closed to traffic for about four hours.
The attack on the bridge came as Russia said on Tuesday said it was wrong to expect a quick breakthrough in Ukraine talks, a day after Moscow rejected Kyiv’s call for an unconditional ceasefire at negotiations in Istanbul – more than three years into a Russian offensive that has killed tens of thousands on both sides and forced millions from their homes in eastern Ukraine. Russia instead offered a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline, its top negotiator said after the talks.
“The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday. “It would be wrong to expect immediate solutions and breakthroughs.”
The sides instead agreed on a large-scale swap of captured soldiers and exchanged their plans for peace, or so-called “memorandums”, at the discussions, which lasted for just under two hours on Monday.
According to the document handed to the Ukrainians that was published by Russian state media, Moscow is demanding that Ukraine pull its troops out of four eastern and southern regions that Moscow claims to have annexed as a precondition to pausing its offensive.
Mr Peskov was speaking as Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, arrived in the US along with deputy prime minister Yulia Svrydenko to press for tougher sanctions on Russia.
Mr Zelenskiy’s attendance at the Nato summit in The Hague from June 24th-26th was welcomed by the Ukrainian president after reported misgivings over the potential for the renewal of friction between Zelenskiy and Trump administration officials.
“We were invited to the Nato summit. I think this is important,” said Mr Zelenskiy on Monday after he held a meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in Vilnius.
