Ukrainian naval drones hit a key bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula, killing a couple and seriously injuring their daughter, the Kremlin said Monday.
The bridge, a symbolic and strategically important piece of infrastructure that President Vladimir Putin himself opened in 2018, connects road and rail traffic from Russia to the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
Pictures from The Associated Press and others showed that part of the roadbed had fallen away, with warped metal girders hanging down toward the water.
Russian officials said the bridge was hit by blasts from two Ukrainian “unmanned naval surface vehicles,” Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee said in a statement, adding that it had opened an investigation in what it called a “terrorist act.”
A man and a woman driving along the bridge were killed and their daughter was seriously injured, it said.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said at a daily briefing that Russia knew “the reasons” behind “this terrorist act” but did not elaborate further. He said that the Kremlin was “perfectly aware” of the “coordination” between Ukraine, the United States, Europe and NATO. But that this was not a reason to cut diplomatic ties with those countries.
Russian officials did not provide evidence of their claims of responsibility for the incident.
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Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne cited multiple anonymous law enforcement sources as saying this was a special operation by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency and its navy. NBC News has not confirmed those reports.
Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson, Andriy Yusov, declined to comment on whether Ukraine was involved. Speaking with Suspline, he only noted that “any logistical problems are additional complications for the occupiers” — meaning Russia.
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, suggested Russia could be behind the attack.
“Given the unprecedented security measures that the Russians have been taking for a long time around the Crimean bridge, they most likely controlled this entire situation and it continues to unfold according to the script programmed by them,” she told Suspilne.
In October, Russia blamed Ukraine for another explosion that damaged the bridge, also known as the Kerch Bridge. Ukraine admitted only indirectly to the attack months later.
On Monday, Russia’s Grey Zone channel, a channel on the messaging app Telegram affiliated with the Wagner mercenary group, reported there were two strikes on the bridge at 03:04 a.m. (8:04 p.m. ET Sunday) and 03:20 a.m., Reuters reported.
Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Russia-installed Crimean parliament, said in a statement posted on Telegram that the railroad section of the bridge, which is crucial for Russian military logistics, had not been damaged in the blasts.
“Kyiv could not help but know that the automobile part of the crossing is a purely civilian facility,” he said. “But that has never stopped the terrorists. It won’t stop [them] in the future.”
He added that “regarding the retribution,” the Russian Defense Ministry “has promised strikes against the centers where the criminal decisions are made,” he said.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
