A pair of explosions at the Kerch Bridge around 3 AM local time on Monday resulted in a section of the bridge visibly dropping several feet, making vehicle traffic on the bridge impossible. In addition, Russian officials have reported damage to one of the bridge’s support pillars. Repairs are estimated to take at least one month. In the meantime, Russia is scrambling to reroute vehicle traffic along a land route and expand freight ferry service across the nearly 20-kilometer span of water between Russia and the Crimean peninsula.
Russia is claiming that there has been no damage to the rail line crossing the bridge, but it is unclear if that service was operating at full capacity. Trains only began crossing the bridge again in May following the earlier attack on the bridge using explosives on a fuel truck on Oct. 8, 2022. Rail traffic is currently halted as Russian engineers examine the damage to the bridge.
The attack on the bridge was reportedly carried out by the Ukrainian navy using sea drones. On Sunday, Russia filmed a naval drone cutting across the bay at Sevastopol, on the opposite side of Crimea. This drone was reportedly part of an attack that may have included as many as eight naval drones and an unknown number of flying drones. Russia reported that these drones had been destroyed, but the released videos showed only one disabled drone.