Crimea Bridge Blast: Day After Attack, Partially Reopens as Russia Retaliates

The bridge between Russia and Crimea, according to the Russian authorities, reopened in part the day after the assault. According to a Russian source quoted by the BBC, just one lane of the bridge across the Kerch Strait was being used by traffic.

Assaulting the bridge on Monday with seaborne drones, which resulted in the murder of a couple and the injury of their daughter, is blamed on Ukraine by Russia. On Monday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning that the Kremlin will retaliate.

Russia said on Tuesday that it had launched out a “retaliation strike” against locations in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, alleging that these locations had been used to plot an assault on the bridge between Moscow and Crimea.

According to a Russian Army statement that AFP was able to obtain, “At night, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a group retaliation strike with high-precision sea-based weapons at facilities where terrorist acts against Russia had been prepared using unmanned boats.”

Additionally, according to Ukrainian authorities, Odessa’s port infrastructure was damaged by a Russian midnight attack. They claimed that by deploying their air defense, they were able to shoot down 21 attack drones made in Iran as well as six Kalibr missiles headed towards Odessa.

According to them, multiple private dwellings as well as port infrastructure facilities were destroyed by missile debris and the blast wave from the missiles’ downing.

Marat Khusnullin, the deputy prime minister of Russia, expressed his optimism that by the middle of September, two-way traffic on the Crimea Bridge might be resumed. According to the officials, the bridge’s span was damaged, but the structure itself was unharmed.

The bridge is important because it is used to transport supplies, including weapons, to Russian soldiers fighting inside Ukraine. Following a referendum that Ukraine and the rest of the world did not recognize, Russia seized Crimea in 2014.

Additionally unharmed is the bridge’s adjacent railway line. Ukraine was behind the operation and employed water-based drones for the attack, according to the BBC Russian, which cited a highly placed Ukrainian acquainted with the situation. However, Ukraine has not released any public statements.

Following an incident in October, the bridge was partly blocked. In February, it reopened.

Russia has insisted that the assaults had nothing to do with its decision not to prolong the grain contract.