Crimean bridge in Russian , Two people were killed, and a child was injured in an ’emergency’.
Officials declare an ’emergency’ on the Crimean bridge connecting to the Russian mainland and advise residents not to use it.
According to officials, two people were killed, and a child was injured in an “emergency situation” on a Russian-built bridge connecting the annexed Crimean Peninsula to Russia’s Krasnodar region.
The announcement came hours after Moscow-installed officials said traffic on the bridge had been halted, and Ukrainian media reported explosions near the flyover.
According to Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the southern Russian region of Belgorod, a couple and their daughter were among those killed on the bridge.
“We all saw a damaged car with Belgorod numbers on the Internet with you.” “What we know right now is that a girl was injured,” Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.
“The hardest thing is that her parents, dad and mum, died.”
Hours earlier, the Russian-installed Governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said “traffic on the Crimean bridge has been stopped” due to an “emergency” on the 145th pillar of the bridge, which connects the peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar.
“All relevant law enforcement agencies and services are working… “Steps are being taken to deal with the situation,” he said.
Aksyonov should have provided additional information.
The Russian TASS news agency reported that train traffic on the bridge might be altered due to an “emergency situation.” In contrast, the RIA state news agency said that police officers warned drivers that the ferry service in the area was also unavailable.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, but the peninsula is still recognised internationally as Ukrainian territory. The bridge connecting Crimean bridge and Krasnodar is critical for transporting supplies to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
The RBC-Ukraine news agency reported that explosions had been heard on the bridge, prompting reports of an emergency.
Russia’s Grey Zone, a popular Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner mercenary group, also reported two bridge attacks at 03.04 am (00:04 GMT) and 03.20 am (00:20 GMT).
Emergency’ on Russian Crimea bridge:
Emergency’ on Russian Crimean bridge
According to the Kremlin, the 12-mile (19-kilometre) road and rail bridge was damaged by an explosion last October in an attack orchestrated by Ukrainian security forces.
Ukraine only admitted to the attack indirectly months later.
Both Aksyonov and the governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, stated that operational headquarters had been established in their respective areas to address the emergency on the bridge.
The peninsula’s Russian-backed administration said it has all the necessary supplies but urged residents not to use the bridge.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Odesa military administration, shared a photo on his Telegram channel of what appeared to be a broken line of the bridge in the distance.
It was unclear whether this was connected to the attack.
Putin drove a Mercedes across the Crimean bridge after it was repaired, emphasising how important the project was to him.
The 19km (12 miles) bridge is the only direct land link between Russia and Crimea; ferries are slower and unreliable when winter weather hits the Black Sea.
The road and railway bridges are parallel, with a large suspension span in the middle to allow ships to pass. It has served as a supply route for Russian troops invading southern Ukraine and the naval base at Sevastopol port, which houses Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet.
When the bridge is closed, Russia can still send supplies to Crimean bridge via occupied Ukraine, along the coastal highway through ruined Mariupol, and alongside the Azov Sea. However, this is a longer route and a less complicated target for Ukrainian forces than the heavily guarded bridge.
“The Kerch Strait Bridge is a logistically significant object,” George Barrows, an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War in the United States, wrote on Twitter following the first reports of explosions on the bridge.
“If UKR manages to degrade/demolish the bridge, 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 and Crimea.”
The bridge has also served as the main route for Russian civilians travelling to Crimea for vacations, despite a string of Ukrainian attacks on Russian military targets there, including an airbase and naval vessels.
Russian tourists have always been drawn to Crimean bridge . Visitors increased after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, making travel to Western countries more difficult. Moscow’s propaganda machine doubled down on the historically incorrect claim that Crimea had been Russian for centuries.
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