Traffic along the Crimean Bridge—which connects the annexed peninsula with the Russian mainland—was halted Monday following reports of explosions, an incident that comes nine months after the strategically important bridge was damaged in a strike conducted by Ukrainian forces.
File photo of the Crimean Bridge which was allegedly attacked by Ukrainian forces again on Monday.
The traffic stoppage was the result of an “emergency,” Crimea’s Russia-installed governor Sergey Aksenov said in a Telegram post, adding that law enforcement agencies are looking into the situation.
In a subsequent post, Aksenov urged the peninsula’s residents to “refrain from traveling through the Crimean bridge” and pick alternate routes “for security regions.”
According to the RBC-Ukraine news agency, the “emergency” in question was an attack on the bridge carried out by the Ukrainian Navy and intelligence.
Citing a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Ukrainian news report added that the attack was carried out using “surface drones.”
Some Ukrainian journalists shared unverified images of what appeared to be major damage to a segment of the bridge on Twitter.
Officials on the Russian side of the bridge reported the deaths of two people and said their daughter was injured in an accident on the bridge, the Associated Press reported.
This is a developing story