Explosion rocks Kerch Bridge to Crimea

Yahoo

2 days ago

Credit: Ukrainian Security Service
A bomb planted by Ukrainian spies rocked the underbelly of Russia's Kerch Bridge which links occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland.
In what was Kyiv's third attack on the structure, its security service said it detonated 1,100kg of explosives early on Tuesday, damaging some underwater pillars.
According to Ukraine's SBU, its agents had secretly mined the bridge's foundations in a months-long operation aimed at destabilising a vital artery for supplying Russian forces.
The SBU said in a statement: 'Today, without any casualties among the civilian population, at 4:44 in the morning the first explosive device was activated!'
The attack – although the damage appears relatively small – represents yet another morale-raising coup for Ukraine, which in recent days has shown off its ability to penetrate deep inside Russia and hit some of its most valued assets.
On Sunday, Ukraine pulled off one of its most audacious missions inside enemy territory, destroying dozens of Vladimir Putin's prized strategic bombers in coordinated drone strikes.
Western officials said that Sunday's attacks would limit Moscow's ability to strike Ukrainian cities with cruise missiles.
However they cautioned that the operation would not change the situation on the battlefield, where Russia is capturing hundreds of square kilometres of territory every month.
The two surprise attacks bookended an unsuccessful round of peace talks in Istanbul, in which Moscow presented a peace settlement – largely unchanged since the start of negotiations – that Kyiv dismissed as tantamount to surrender.
In the aftermath of the bridge explosion, Lt Gen Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the SBU, said: 'God loves a trinity, and the SBU always finishes what it starts and never repeats itself.
'We hit the Crimean Bridge twice before, in 2022 and 2023. Today, we continued that tradition – this time, from below the surface. There is no place on Ukrainian territory for Russia's illegal infrastructure.'
Russian authorities said operations had been suspended for about three hours between 4am and 7am local time. It gave no reason for the temporary closure, but said the bridge had been reopened and was functioning as normal.
The 12-mile-long Kerch bridge, also known as the Crimean bridge, consists of a separate roadway and railway at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and Azov Sea.
It allows the flow of troops and goods into Russian-occupied eastern and southern Ukrainian territories.
It is considered one of Kyiv's most desired military and symbolic targets of the war.
It also holds significant personal value to Vladimir Putin who sees it as a visible reminder of one his greatest political achievements – the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The Russian president personally unveiled the bridge, leading a ceremonial convoy of trucks across it in 2018.
For Ukraine, the bridge is a hated symbol of Russia's illegal 11-year occupation of its lands.
Footage released by the SBU showed an explosion next to one of the many support pillars of the bridge. Pictures from the aftermath showed a chunk of the bridge's metal barriers lying across one of the lanes.
The bridge was previously targeted by Ukraine in 2022 using a truck bomb and in a sea drone strike in 2023. Both attacks caused extensive damage to the road section and sparked costly repairs.
The SBU said: 'So today we continued this tradition underwater. There is no place for any illegal Russian facilities on the territory of our state.'
On the battlefield, Ukrainian strikes overnight triggered power cuts over huge swathes of Russian-controlled territory, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into darkness.
The attacks on power substations, which came just hours after the peace talks failed to yield results, left entire towns and cities without electricity in the partially-occupied Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, complicating Russia's ability to wage war.
On Tuesday, as senior Ukrainian officials flew to Washington for defence talks, Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of 'deliberately' targeting civilians in the North-east region of Sumy.
A rocket attack on the city of Sumy, which lies just 18 miles from the Russian border, killed three people and injured at least 20.
Posting footage of destroyed cars and a body lying on the road, the Ukrainian president said the attack shows 'everything one needs to know about Russia's so-called 'desire' to end this war'.
Thank you for following our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. It has now ended for the day
Here's a reminder of what happened today:
Donald Trump said he was 'open' to a meeting with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, despite the fact that yesterday's peace talks did not lead to a breakthrough
Mr Zelensky's top aide flew to Washington for a government visit. It was not immediately clear who he was planning to visit
Dmitry Medvedev, a top Russian security official, said that the point of holding peace talks with Ukraine was to ensure a complete Russian victory
A Russian rocket attack on the northeastern city of Sumy killed three people
Ukrainian strikes triggered power cuts over huge swathes of Russian-controlled territory, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into darkness
A bomb planted by Ukrainian spies has rocked Russia's Kerch bridge that links occupied Crimea to the mainland
The Kerch bridge, also known as the Crimean bridge, acts as a vital supply route to Russian forces on the peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and has long been one of Kyiv's main targets of the war.
It is a vital crossing for supplying Russia's ongoing bridge, allowing the flow of goods, military equipment and people into territories illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin, including Zaporizhzhia.
It is also symbolically important for Putin, who believes the bridge underlines his narrative about 'reuniting' Crimea with mainland Russia.
Road traffic on the bridge linking Russia and the Crimean peninsula has resumed, Russian authorities said on Telegram on Tuesday.
Ukraine's SBU security service said on Tuesday it had hit the road and rail bridge with underwater explosives.
US officials have said they are disappointed but not surprised that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine yesterday did not lead to a breakthrough.
One official told ABC News that a number of Vladimir Putin's demands for peace are non-starters, and that the Russian president was not serious about peace.
An official also said that Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to walk away from facilitating negotiations, has become disengaged in recent days.
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine has received an invitation to attend the upcoming Nato summit at The Hague.
There had been uncertainty about whether Kyiv would be invited given Donald Trump's stance on blocking Ukraine from joining Nato.
'We were invited to the Nato summit. I think this is important,' the Ukrainian president said after he held a meeting with the military alliance's secretary general Mark Rutte in Vilnius.
A Nato official confirmed to AFP that 'that Ukraine will be with us in The Hague'.
'We will publish the Nato Summit agenda in due course,' the official said.
Last week, Mr Zelensky said it would be a 'victory for Putin, but not over Ukraine, but over Nato' if it was not invited.
Russia's state investigative committee has accused Ukraine of carrying out 'acts of terrorism' by blowing up two railway bridges in Russia over the weekend.
The attacks were planned to target hundreds of civilians, the committee said on Telegram.
It said seven people were killed and 113 injured, including children, when two trains crashed in Russia's Kursk and Bryansk regions as a result of the attacks.
A Ukrainian attack on Russia's Kerch bridge is ongoing, according to reports from military channels on Telegram.
Ukrainian drones are reportedly attempting to break through Russian defences in clusters after an earlier attack involving 1,100kg explosives.
We'll bring you confirmation once we have it.
The Ukrainians' Operation Spiderweb against Putin's strategic air fleet was a master stroke, executed as part of the Ukrainian strategy to grind Russia down and end the war.
This is not only a matter of what it may cost Putin to replace high value weapon systems: in many cases he cannot replace them at all. With sanctions in place the necessary components are often unobtainable.
The widening gap between the strategic assets available to Russia and Nato is part of a death dance: not unlike the 'Star Wars' programme which helped bring about the end of the Soviet Union.
In anticipation that West might allow the use of some long-ranging weapons against Russian territory, Putin moved his strategic assets further into Russia to put them out of harm's way (or so he thought). But the Ukrainians had a plan to deal with this.
As in the past, when a nation finds itself with its back to the wall, it it is likely to adopt an unconventional and indirect approach. The Ukrainians deployed the Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny, or SBU, the Ukrainian Security Service.
The UK doesn't have a single organisation much like the SBU – it developed out of the Ukrainian branch of the KGB on the fall of the Soviet Union, and like the old KGB it does spying and internal security as well as special operations.
Credit: Telegram / russianocontext
Russia poses no threat to Britain, rejecting accusations by the Government of growing aggression and hybrid attacks.
The Ministry of Defence on Monday set out plans to address new threats, including from Russia, after endorsing the findings of an independent Strategic Defence Review.
John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said Europe was facing war, growing Russian aggression, new nuclear risks and daily cyberattacks.
Russia's embassy issued a statement on Tuesday criticising what it described as 'a fresh salvo of anti-Russian rhetoric'.
'Russia poses no threat to the United Kingdom and its people,' the statement said. 'We harbour no aggressive intentions and have no plans to attack Britain. We are not interested in doing so, nor do we need to.'
Russia said electricity was returning to customers in Zaporizhzhia after a Ukrainian attack left thousands of people without power (see 12.38pm post).
Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, said on Telegram that around 20pc of the more than 600,000 people left without electricity now had power again.
At least 700,000 people in parts of two Ukrainian regions controlled by Russia lost power as a result of attacks by Ukrainian forces, Russian state news reported earlier today.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine which is fighting to try to retake territory it says has been seized from it by Russia in a colonial-style landgrab.
The Kerch bridge has been targeted several times by Ukrainian forces throughout the war.
It is a vital crossing for supplying Russia's ongoing bridge, allowing the flow of goods, military equipment and people into territories illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin, including Zaporizhzhia.
As a result, Ukraine says it's a legitimate target.
It is also symbolically important for Putin, who believes the bridge underlines his narrative about 'reuniting' Crimea with mainland Russia.
Britain will be forced by Nato to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2032, The Telegraph understands.
On Monday, Sir Keir Starmer said he had an 'ambition' to reach 3 per cent by the end of the next parliament but stopped short of a firm commitment.
But, at a summit in the Hague later this month, Nato countries will commit to a new target of 3.5 per cent, plus an additional 1.5 per cent on defence-related infrastructure by 2032.
Increasing defence spending from the current pledge of 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent would cost around £30 billion, equivalent to a 4p increase in the basic rate of income tax.
Ukrainian strikes have triggered power cuts over huge swathes of Russian-controlled territory, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into darkness.
The attacks on power substations, which came after an unsuccessful second round of peace talks in Istanbul, have left entire towns and cities without electricity in the partially-occupied Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Officials said there was no effect on operations at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear station that is currently in shutdown mode, and that radiation levels were normal.
Russian-installed governors in the two regions – which are among the key areas that Moscow demands Ukraine give up in order to end the war - said authorities have been forced to introduce emergency measures to preserve power.
Meanwhile, Russia's overnight aerial attacks killed one person in Ukraine's northeast and injured several more in the northern city of Chernihiv.
It comes after Moscow and Kyiv agreed to swap thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops, but made scant progress towards a peace settlement. Ukraine proposed further talks later this month.
US and European intelligence officials have confirmed that Ukraine's surprise drone attack destroyed around 20 of Russia's prized strategic bombers.
The unprecedented coordinated attacks on four Russian airfields on Sunday, known as Operation Spider's Web, dealt a sweeping blow to Russia's long-range strike capabilities.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Kyiv claimed more than 40 bombers had been hit, but Western officials told The New York Times that the number was closer to 20.
Russia's confirmed losses included six Tu-95 and four TU-22M long-range strategic bombers, as well as A-50 early warning warplanes.
The officials, however, cautioned that battle damage assessments of one of the most damaging single attacks of the three-year war were still ongoing.
Russia has officially claimed only several planes were affected, but Kremlin-linked sources put the tally closer to 13.
Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of 'deliberately' targeting civilians today in a rocket attack on the city of Sumy.
'The Russians launched a savage strike on Sumy - directly targeting the city and its ordinary streets with rocket artillery. It was a fully deliberate attack on civilians,' he said on X.
The strike on the city, some 18 miles from the Russian border, killed at least three people, Mr Zelensky said.
He posted a video from the emergency services showing destroyed cars and the body of one victim lying on the road.
The deadly attack 'says everything one needs to know about Russia's so-called 'desire' to end this war', the Ukrainian leader added.
Credit: Reuters
A Russian rocket attack on the northeastern city of Sumy killed three people today, in the latest in a series of escalating attacks on the border region.
The city has come under intense Russian bombardment after Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to create a 'buffer zone' inside the region to try to prevent further attacks on Russia.
A medical facility, houses and cars were hit, local officials said.
Senior Ukrainian officials have arrived in Washington for defence and economic talks.
The delegation is made up of Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, and Yulia Svyrydenko, the first deputy prime minister, along with defence officials.
'We plan to talk about defence support and the situation on the battlefield, strengthening sanctions against Russia,' Mr Yermak said on X.
'We will tell [the US] about the results of the meetings in Istanbul, as well as how Russia is stalling for time with the ceasefire and negotiations for the sake of war. The truth is with us,' he added.
Dmitry Medvedev, a top Russian security official, said on Tuesday that the point of holding peace talks with Ukraine was to ensure a swift and complete 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 said on Telegram.
Medvedev, one of Russia's most outspoken anti-Western hawks, added that Moscow would take revenge for Ukraine's attacks on its strategic bombers. 'Retribution is inevitable,' he warned.
Wars have always forced innovation.
From Hannibal at Cannae and Alexander the Great at Gaugamela to the SAS commandos of the desert campaign in the Second World War, tactical breakthroughs have shattered enemy complacency and changed battle strategy for ever.
Sunday's extraordinary Ukrainian attacks against Russia's strategic bomber force – arguably one of the most important raids in the history of modern warfare – will have a similar effect. The rules of war have just been rewritten, and the consequences will be felt globally.
The most immediate impact will be felt in Russia, where the illusion of invincibility that hung over its long-range aviation fleet has been so spectacularly sundered. Officials in Kyiv reckon they have destroyed or damaged up to a third of Russia's most prized air assets, planes that have wrought devastation in Ukraine for so long.
The Ukrainian president's chief of staff and the first deputy prime minister are travelling to the United States on a government visit, a Ukrainian source said on Tuesday.
Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, and Yulia Svyrydenko will visit Washington, DC during the trip, the source told Reuters.
The purpose of their trip is still unclear.
Russia's overnight attacks killed one person in Ukraine's northeastern region of Kharkiv and injured several more in the northern city of Chernihiv, regional Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.
A private enterprise was hit in the small town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia, killing one employee and injuring several others, Vitali Karabanov, the head of the town's military administration, said.
'A massive UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) attack on the town,' Karabanov said, without providing details of the scale.
Falling drones on streets and residential buildings in the northern city of Chernihiv sparked several fires, including at residential houses, local officials said, injuring 24 people.
In the southern port city of Odesa, Russian overnight air attacks damaged residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, but there were no reported injuries.
Donald Trump is 'open' to meeting his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in Turkey, the White House said, after the two sides failed on Monday to make headway towards an elusive ceasefire.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president, had proposed that Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky and Mr Trump come together for a third round later this month in either Istanbul or Ankara.
Putin has so far refused such a meeting. But Mr Zelensky said he is willing, underlining that key issues can only be resolved at leaders-level.
Mr Trump, who wants a swift end to the three-year war, is 'open' to a three-way summit 'if it comes to that, but he wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together', Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesman, said.
But despite Mr Trump's willingness to meet with Putin and Mr Zelensky, no US representative took part in Monday's talks in Istanbul.
Vladimir Putin has laid out his demands for both a ceasefire and ending the war in Ukraine.
Russian negotiators tabled a long memorandum in a second round of direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul on Monday.
The document's first section contained Moscow's 'basic parameters of a final settlement'.
It stipulates that Ukraine must withdraw its troops from four eastern regions that Russia only partially occupies, and that international recognition of Russian sovereignty over them and Crimea must be granted.
Kyiv must also commit to curbs on the size of its military, as well as to permanent neutrality and to having no foreign troops deployed on its territory.
Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff has hit out at Russia's negotiating team after a second round of peace talks offered no breakthrough.
'Russians are doing everything they can to avoid a ceasefire and continue the war,' Andriy Yermak argued, calling for more sanctions on Moscow.
Monday's talks in Instanbul appeared to end badly after barely an hour. Ukrainian officials described Russia's peace demands as unacceptable and tantamount to surrender and proposed further talks later this month.
The high-level meeting took place under the shadow of Ukraine's audacious coordinated drone attack on Vladimir Putin's strategic bomber bases on Sunday that is being referred to as 'Russia's Pearl Harbour' moment.
We're bringing you all the latest from the war in Ukraine.
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