Ukraine says it hit Russia's bridge to Crimea with underwater explosives

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine's SBU security service said on Tuesday that it had hit the road and rail bridge linking Russia and the Crimean peninsula below the water level with explosives.

In a statement, the SBU said it had used 1,100 kilograms (2,420 pounds) of explosives that were detonated early in the morning and damaged underwater pillars of the bridge, a key supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine in the past.

The official Russian outlet which provides regular status updates on the bridge said its operation had been suspended for about three hours between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time.

It gave no reason for the temporary closure, but said the bridge had been reopened and was functioning as normal.

"Previously, we hit the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition underwater," the SBU said in its statement, adding that the operation had been prepared over several months.

The SBU shared video footage that showed an explosion next to one of the many support pillars of the bridge.

Reuters was able to confirm the location from the structure and bearing elements of the bridge that matched satellite and file imagery of the area. Reuters was not able to independently verify when the video was filmed.

Russian military bloggers said the attack had been unsuccessful and speculated that it had been carried out by a Ukrainian sea drone.

On Sunday, Ukraine launched drones in an operation codenamed "Spider's Web" to attack Russian nuclear-capable long-range bomber planes at distant airfields across Russia.

The 19-km (12-mile) Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in

2014.

The bridge was a flagship project for Russian President Vladimir Putin. It consists of a separate roadway and railway, both supported by concrete stilts, which give way to a wider span held by steel arches at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and the smaller Azov Sea.

The bridge was used by Russian forces during their invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when they crossed it to reach Crimea and from there went on to seize parts of Ukraine's southern Kherson and southeastern Zaporizhzhia regions.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Olena Harmash in Kyiv; additional reporting by Andrew Osborn; editing by Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)