Crimean Bridge put out of operation by nighttime explosion

On the night of 17 July, there was "damage to the road surface" on the Crimean bridge on the Crimean side. 

This has been confirmed by the russian Ministry of Transport. 

"The structures themselves remain on their supports," the report adds.

russian Telegram channels publish the following chronology of events: 

- Around 3:00 a.m. an explosion occured and the lights went out, a few minutes later traffic on the bridge was blocked; 

- One lane of the Crimean Bridge towards Taman has been destroyed, another one towards Kerch has collapsed;

- At 3:20 a.m. another explosion occurred near the railway bridge.

At the same time, Sergey Aksionov, "Head" of the occupation authorities in Crimea, promises that rail traffic will be restored by 9:00 a.m., by which time "data on the operation of the ferry connection will be clarified," and "law enforcement agencies will provide additional information on the cause of the event." According to him, the "extraordinary event" occurred near the 145th support of the bridge crossing.

There are huge traffic jams on the approaches to the bridge. The occupying authorities recommend using land routes for detours, referring to temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories by russia. 

russian Telegram channels initially reported that a span on the bridge had "collapsed" due to damage to one of the supports, preceded by at least two explosions. Later, official sources only confirmed damage to the road surface.

The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has already commented on the events on the Crimean bridge. "We can only quote the words of the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the MoD, Kyrylo Budanov, that 'the Crimean Bridge is a needless construction there'," said DIU representative Andriy Yusov.