Explosions rock occupied Kerch, smoke seen near Crimean Bridge

Photo: Krymsky Veter

Alvina Kaminska

On August 12, on the temporarily occupied peninsula near Kerch, explosions rang out, and smoke was seen over the Kerch bridge.

"Krym.Realii" media reported this.

The publication reports that eyewitnesses claim the sounds of explosions in the Kerch area.

Meanwhile, photos of the Crimean Bridge, over which smoke is rising, are spreading on social networks. In particular, traffic on the bridge was temporarily suspended.

At this time, other details of the situation are not disclosed.

The head of the occupation administration of Crimea, Serhiy Aksyonov, claims about the alleged work of the Air Defense Forces. According to him, the Crimean Bridge "is not damaged."

"In the area of the Kerch Strait, two enemy missiles were shot down by air defense forces. The Crimean Bridge was not damaged," said Aksyonov.

Later, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that Ukraine's armed forces allegedly attacked with S-200 missiles, but they were shot down, and the smoke was allegedly a Russian "smoke screen".

^{Photo: Crimean wind}

For reference:

On July 17, at night, explosions rang out on the Crimean Bridge. One span of the brigde toward Taman was destroyed, and the span towards Kerch was damaged.

Media sources in the Security Service of Ukraine said that these explosions were the result of a special operation by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Naval Forces. The bridge was attacked using surface drones.

Against this background, the Security Service stressed that the norms of international law and the rules of warfare allow cutting off the enemy's logistical routes.

In addition, on October 8, 2022, an explosion followed by a fire occurred on the bridge over the Kerch Strait. After that, part of the road surface collapsed on the bridge; traffic was blocked.

Later, on October 20, 2022, Zelensky stated that Ukraine was not the customer of the  so-called "terrorist attack" on the Crimean Bridge.

In turn, the Security Service of Ukraine then said that Russia was generally far from reality regarding the investigation of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge.

Already on July 23, 2023, Zelensky called the Crimean Bridge a target that must be neutralized.

Russian officials called the attack on the Crimean Bridge a "terrorist attack" and also said that they would be able to fix it no earlier than November.