Ukraine’s security services have claimed responsibility for a major underwater explosion that damaged the Kerch Bridge on June 3, the critical road and rail link between Russia and the occupied Crimean peninsula.

While the explosion was large, the damage to the bridge appears to be minimal and Russian authorities reopened the bridge to traffic after a few hours according to the latest reports.

The high-profile attack comes only days after Operation Spiderweb where the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) smuggled drones into Russia and launched them remotely from trucks deep in Russia’s interior, blowing up 41 long-distance strategic bombers that are part of Russia’s nuclear weapons delivery system.

This is the third time that the $4bn bridge has been attacked, a symbol of Russia’s occupation of the Crimea peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.

Previously the Kerch bridge was bombed in October 2022 in a special operation when a truck packed with explosives and driven by an unsuspecting Russian driver was detonated remotely while crossing the bridge doing considerable structural damage. There was also a naval drone strike in July 2023. On both prior occasions, Russia repaired the bridge within weeks.

The recent attacks are designed to show that Ukraine has changed tactics and is increasingly taking the fight to Russia, despite having to withdraw its forces following the Kursk incursion carried out last year, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) occupied over 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory – the first time Russia had been invaded since WWII.

Analysts say that with these attacks, Ukraine is showing the Trump administration that it still has “some cards to play” in its conflict with Russia and hope to draw in more US support to sustain its struggle against the Kremlin. Other analysts called Operation Spiderweb “Russia’s Pearl Harbour” moment.

The two attacks are also in retaliation for Russia’s own devastating missile barrage a week earlier – the heaviest since the war began over three years ago – that targeted Kyiv and several other urban centres across the country, killing around 100 civilians and designed to degrade Ukraine’s air defences which reply on a dwindling stock of Patriot missile rockets.

Unusually, the SBU has taken credit for both attacks. The Ukrainian secret services rarely comment on special operations, especially if they take place on Russian soil.

"Previously, we hit the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition underwater," the SBU said in its statement.

The SBU released a video of the explosion, watermarked with the Ukrainian state emblem, underscoring the political dimension to the attack. On the day of the attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was on his way to Washington with Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustam Umerov to meet US President Donald Trump.

“Ukraine is busy producing a new pack of cards to present to Trump at the next Oval Office meeting with Trump,” Timothy Ash, the senior sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London said in an emailed note. “Ukraine is proving via this latest attack and the drone attack over the weekend that it has lots of agency to make life very difficult for Russia, and Trump and the US going forward.”

 

Over a metric tonne of TNT was used in the attack on the bridge which “severely damaged” the base of the bridge supports, the SBU claim.

Opened in 2018 and personally inaugurated by Russian president Vladimir Putin, the bridge serves as a vital military supply route for Russian forces operating in southern Ukraine. The bridge was used by Russian forces during their invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when they crossed it to reach Crimea and from there went on to seize parts of Ukraine's southern Kherson and southeastern Zaporizhzhia regions.

It was the only direct connection between Russia’s mainland and the peninsula until Russia occupied the land bridge between the Crimea and its border town of Rostov-on-Don – known to Russians as Novorossiya – after the start of the war.

The status of Novorossiya remains unclear. During the latest round of ceasefire talks held in Istanbul on June 1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave the Ukrainian delegation a six-point list of conditions for a ceasefire that included a demand that Ukraine recognise Russia’s sovereignty over the four regions it annexed in 2023 and the Crimea, but no mention of the Novorossiya land bridge has been made in any of the talks held since the process kicked off in Riyadh on February 18. However, Russia has been investing heavily in rebuilding the destroyed city of Mariupol on the coast there and clearly has no intention of giving up that territory.

Lt General Vasyl Maliuk of the SBU, who oversaw the operation, called the bridge “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 footage shows a large explosion erupting from beneath the bridge, suggesting the charges were set by divers or it was a naval drone strike as the bridge remains heavily guarded. Debris flew into the air, but the extent of the damage is impossible to judge from the video. Russian military bloggers said the attack had been unsuccessful and speculated that it had been carried out by a Ukrainian sea drone.

Russian authorities are playing down the attack and said road traffic across the bridge has been temporarily halted, with state media reporting a four-hour closure. The roadway above appears to be undamaged, and the supporting pillars also appear to be still intact. As of the time or writing the bridge has already been reopened to traffic.

“This operation had been planned for several months,” the SBU said in a statement.

The attack comes as Ukraine confirmed it had been invited to the upcoming Nato summit later this month, following concerns raised by Zelenskiy that Kyiv’s exclusion would represent a “victory” for Russia.