Ukraine has detonated a massive underwater blast targeting the key road and rail bridge connecting the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia, damaging its underwater supports.
The operation, for which Kyiv’s SBU security service claimed responsibility, is the second high-profile operation by Ukraine in days striking significant Russian assets after a sophisticated drone raid on Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet on Sunday.
The attack came as Ukraine confirmed it had been invited to the Nato summit later this month, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it would be a “victory” for Russia if it was not present.
The latest strike on the 12-mile-long Kerch bridge – a prestige project of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, which he opened in 2018 – comes amid what appear to be determined efforts by Ukraine to change the narrative promoted by the Trump administration that Kyiv holds few cards in the war.
The mining of the bridge, which is heavily defended by Russian forces, follows the audacious long-range drone attack on airbases deep inside Russia, which Zelenskyy claimed had damaged “34% of [Russia’s] strategic cruise missile carriers”.
In a further development on Tuesday, Russia’s state investigative committee accused Ukraine of carrying out “acts of terrorism” by blowing up two railway bridges in Russia over the weekend. Seven people were killed and 113 injured, including children, when two trains crashed as a result of the attacks.
A Russian rocket attack on the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday killed at least four people and wounded 25, officials said. Zelenskyy denounced the assault, saying it underscored the fact that Moscow had no intention of halting the war.
The SBU said the operation against the Kerch bridge had been planned for several months and involved the equivalent of more than a metric tonne of TNT, which it said had “severely damaged” the base of the bridge supports.
It is the third time Ukraine has targeted the key logistics route since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
In October 2022, a truck exploded on the bridge, while in July 2023, the SBU said it had blown up part of the bridge using an experimental naval drone. Both times, Russia repaired the damaged sections.
Lt Gen Vasyl Maliuk, of the SBU, who supervised the latest operation, described the bridge as “an absolutely legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops”.
He added: “Crimea is Ukraine, and any manifestations of occupation will receive our tough response.”
The SBU published footage showing a blast coming out of the water and debris flying, along with a photo of some damage to the side of the bridge.
Road traffic on the bridge had been temporarily suspended, Russian authorities said on Telegram on Tuesday. Russian state media reported it had been closed to traffic for about four hours.
Russia said on Tuesday said it was wrong to expect a quick breakthrough in Ukraine talks, a day after Moscow rejected Kyiv’s call for an unconditional ceasefire at negotiations in Istanbul. The Russian offensive has been going for more than three years, and has killed tens of thousands on both sides and forced millions from their homes in eastern Ukraine. Russia instead offered a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline, its top negotiator said after the talks.
“The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Tuesday. “It would be wrong to expect immediate solutions and breakthroughs.”
The sides instead agreed on a large-scale swap of captured soldiers and exchanged their roadmaps to peace, or “memorandums”, at the discussions, which lasted for just under two hours on Monday.
According to a document handed to the Ukrainians that was published by Russian state media, Moscow is demanding, as a precondition to pausing its offensive, that Ukraine pull its troops out of four eastern and southern regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.
Peskov was speaking as Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, arrived in the US along with the deputy prime minister Yulia Svrydenko to press for tougher sanctions on Russia.
“We plan to talk about defence support and the situation on the battlefield, strengthening sanctions against Russia,” Yermak said on Telegram.
Peskov also dismissed the idea of a summit between the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the US.
“In the near future, it is unlikely,” he told reporters, adding that such a summit could happen only after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached an agreement.
The White House said on Monday that Donald Trump was “open” to the idea of a summit, which is also backed by Zelenskyy and by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Zelenskyy’s attendance at the Nato summit in The Hague from 24 to 26 June was welcomed by the Ukrainian president after reported misgivings over the potential for the renewal of friction between Zelenskyy and Trump administration officials.
“We were invited to the Nato summit. I think this is important,” Zelenskyy said on Monday after he held a meeting with Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, in Vilnius.
