On the night of July 17, there was an “emergency incident” on the Crimean bridge, the head of occupied Crimea Sergey Aksyonov said. Pro-Kremlin telegram channels said two missile strikes on the bridge by the AFU at 3:04 and 3:20 Moscow time. As a result, two people were killed and one child was injured.
“There was an emergency incident in the area of the 145th pillar from the side of the Krasnodar region. Law enforcement agencies and all responsible services are working,” – wrote the “governor”.
The authorities stopped all traffic through the Kerch Strait: automobile and railroad. The ferry crossing is also closed. The movement of trains and ferries promise to restore soon.
Aksyonov urged tourists “for safety reasons” to avoid traveling across the Crimean bridge and choose a route through the occupied regions of Ukraine. The operational headquarters offered motorists an alternative route to travel to Crimea – through Mariupol, Berdyansk and Melitopol. The Crimean authorities also urged tourists to stay in hotels and sanatoriums if possible until further information is provided.
Readovka reported that the Crimean bridge was hit by a missile strike, which destroyed a support and collapsed two spans. The Transport Ministry later clarified that the explosion damaged the roadbed on the Crimean side. However, the structures of the spans, according to the ministry, are on the supports.
At least two people were killed, another was injured, writes Baza. The channel specified that the car in which the family was in was injured in the explosion – the parents died, the girl was taken to hospital. The damaged car was traveling with the license plates of the Belgorod region.
Later, the deaths of a man and a woman were confirmed by the governor of Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov: “The girl was injured, injuries of medium severity <…> The most serious thing – her parents died, dad and mom”, he wrote.
A minor child was injured in the explosion on the bridge, the Krasnodar region’s operative headquarters said. According to preliminary data, she has a closed craniocerebral injury, the condition of average severity.
Governor of the Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratieva said that an operational headquarters was formed to coordinate the actions of all services in connection with the emergency, as well as to organize assistance to people in the traffic jam on the approaches to the bridge.
A multi-kilometer traffic jam has formed in front of the entrance to the bridge, writes Baza. The Ministry of Internal Affairs officers are turning around all those wishing to pass.
The representative of the military intelligence of Ukraine Andrii Yusov refused to comment on the explosion on the bridge. He quoted the head of the GUR, Kirill Budanov, as saying: “The Crimean bridge is a superfluous construction there”.
The AFU attempted to attack the Crimean bridge on July 9. Then Russian air defense forces shot down a cruise missile near Kerch, after which traffic on the bridge was temporarily stopped in both directions.
