Russia suspended road and rail traffic across a key bridge to Crimea after officials declared an “emergency” over an unspecified incident with one of its supporting pillars.
(Bloomberg) — Russia suspended road and rail traffic across a key bridge to Crimea after officials declared an “emergency” over an unspecified incident with one of its supporting pillars.
Investigators were sent to the bridge across the Kerch Strait linking Russia to Crimea after the incident in the early hours of Monday around the link’s 145th pillar, Sergey Aksyonov, the peninsula’s Kremlin-installed governor said in a Telegram post. He urged people to refrain from traveling for security reason or to seek alternative land routes across Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine.
Rail traffic may resume at 9 a.m. local time and ferry services may help with crossings for vehicles, he said, without giving further details of the incident.
In October, last year a massive blast ripped through the bridge, damaging one of its road spans and temporarily halting rail traffic that’s used to supply Russian forces in the peninsula and in southern Ukrainian areas occupied by Kremlin troops facing a Ukrainian counteroffensive to reclaim the territories.
President Vladimir Putin blamed that attack on Ukraine. Russia later unleashed some of the most intense barrages of strikes against Ukraine since the first days of its February 2022 invasion.
Putin ordered the bridge built after annexing Crimea from Ukraine, calling the link to Russia a “historical mission” when construction began in 2016.
The Investigative Committee said it was sending a team including forensic specialists to examine the scene of the latest bridge incident.
While officials were giving few details, Russia reported intense drone attacks on Crimea in Sunday. Seven drones and two underwater vehicles were destroyed, the Russian Defense Ministry said, accusing Ukraine of a “terrorist attack.”
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.