Car traffic across the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait has been suspended following an overnight strike that caused significant damage and killed two people.

Opened in 2018, it is the only bridge connecting Russia’s Krasnodar Region with Crimea and enables both road and rail travel between the mainland and the occupied peninsula.

“Given the current situation, I ask residents and guests of the peninsula to refrain from travelling across the Crimean Bridge and, for safety reasons, to choose an alternative land route through the new regions,” he wrote, referring to Russia’s newly annexed regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. He also revealed that plans are underway to establish temporary accommodation centres in the eastern part of Crimea for stranded tourists.

A few hours after Aksyonov's initial statement, an official statement from Russia's Ministry of Defence blamed the "Kyiv Regime" for what it called an "attack" on the bridge.

"This regime is a terrorist regime and has all the hallmarks of an international organised criminal group. Decisions are taken by Ukrainian officials and military personnel with the direct involvement of United States and British intelligence services and politicians," the statement said. 

At the same time, the Russian Investigative Committee revealed that it was identifying "persons from special services and armed groups of Ukraine involved in the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge." 

Shortly after the strike, rail movement over the bridge was restored, but images published online show significant damage to the road section and it remains closed in both directions.

Online news outlet Mash posted videos showing that one span on the bridge had collapsed. It said jet skis had been used to carry underwater drones with explosives.

The Crimean Bridge is significant not only for its capacity to take tourists to and from the peninsula but also as a logistics route that enables Russia to resupply troops on the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia fronts.

This is the second time the bridge, a symbol of President Vladimir Putin’s rule, has been hit since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In October 2022, the bridge was partially closed following an explosion. The explosion saw two two-lane vehicular spans of the bridge collapse into the water and also resulted in significant damage to the railway bridge. The cause of the explosion is still yet to be officially confirmed, but “unnamed Ukrainian officials” told the New York Times that the explosion was from a bomb loaded onto a truck.