Rail traffic has been halted on the Russian-built Crimean Bridge due to an “emergency” situation, officials installed by the Kremlin on the peninsula said Monday, while the Ukrainian side reported explosions on the bridge.
Sergei Aksyonov, a Russian-installed governor, said the emergency situation occurred at pier 145 of the bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar. He did not provide further details.
Two people died in the incident and a child was injured, the Belgorod region governor said. Authorities have issued traffic warnings and are urging people to use alternative routes. Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.
Russian channel Grey Zone, a widely followed Telegram account affiliated with the mercenary group Wagner, reported that two strikes on the bridge occurred at 03:04 AM and 03:20 AM local time (01:04 AM and 01:20 AM GMT). There was no official comment from Ukraine.
The Crimean bridge was also damaged last autumn
The 19km-long road and rail bridge was damaged before by an explosion last October in an attack the Kremlin said was orchestrated by Ukrainian security forces. Ukraine only indirectly acknowledged the attack a few months later.
Both Aksyonov and Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said they had set up operational headquarters in their regions to address the emergency situation on the bridge. Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Odessa military administration, posted on Telegram a photo of what appeared to be a line of the bridge in the distance, broken in the middle.
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