As Russia reels from drone attack, Ukraine targets vital Crimea Bridge
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The Washington Post could not independently verify these claims, and it was not immediately clear how much damage had been caused to the bridge. It was closed soon after the morning explosion but reopened a few hours later.
Local Telegram channels in Crimea reported a second explosion Tuesday afternoon, and the bridge was once again closed to traffic for several hours. As of yet, there has been no official confirmation of the attack from Moscow.
This would be Ukraine's third attack against the bridge - a key supply route, but also a symbol of Russia's occupation - since the start of Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, a Ukrainian attack using unmanned sea drones killed two civilians and damaged part of the road, closing a section of the bridge for several months.
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'There is no place for illegal Russian structures on the territory of our state,' Lieutenant General Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service, said in a statement. 'The Crimean Bridge is a completely legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops. Crimea is Ukraine, and any form of occupation will be met with a firm response.'
Tuesday's attack follows Ukraine's stunning operation targeting Russia's strategic bomber fleet on Sunday, which was also coordinated by Maliuk and overseen by President Volodymyr Zelensky himself.
The attack, which was planned over the course of 18 months and involved smuggling dozens of drones armed with explosives deep into Russian territory as far as Siberia and the Far East, reportedly destroyed at least 12 aircraft. Ukraine said the damaged or destroyed aircraft, some of which were nuclear-capable, included A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22 M3 and Tu-160 models - planes Kyiv said Russia had used nearly every night to bomb Ukraine.
Most of the details on how the drone attack was carried out remain secret, and it is also not known if the planes reportedly destroyed were in active service.
President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the attacks, and Russian state media has remained noticeably silent in the wake of Sunday's events. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the president was being kept abreast of developments and that an investigation was underway.
Russia's pro-war military bloggers have been enraged by the attacks, which some dubbed Russia's Pearl Harbor, and said they had caused significant damage to Russia's military capabilities. Hawkish former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday promised revenge against Kyiv for the attacks.
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'Everything that is supposed to explode, will certainly explode,' wrote Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, in a post on Telegram.
In the past week, Russia has also launched swarms of drones and missile strikes against Ukrainian cities. The latest exchange of attacks marks an intensification of the conflict, as both sides have been pushed to the negotiating table by President Trump and European allies, and as Moscow has refused any talk of a ceasefire.
A Russian strike on the northeastern city of Sumy on Tuesday morning killed four people and injured 24, according to local authorities.
Russia and Ukraine met for a brief second round of direct talks in Istanbul on Monday, agreeing to swap dead and captured soldiers, but there was no significant progress toward ending the grueling war or even agreeing to a cease-fire.
Ukraine negotiators after the talks said they had requested a meeting of Putin, Zelensky, and Trump to move forward the process, but Peskov on Tuesday dismissed the idea and said any such high-level meeting was 'unlikely.'
Moscow on Monday also published its terms of discussion for any peace deal, including Ukraine surrendering more territory to Russia, cutting down the size of its military and not engaging in any alliances or weapons deals with Western nations.
Medvedev on Tuesday cast the direct peace talks as a way to ensure a swift Russian victory.
'The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime,' he wrote.
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