At 4:44 a.m. on June 3, the first charge went off beneath the Crimean Bridge. By the end of the day, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) had said it was behind the blast and that it had damaged the bridge’s underwater supports.
“God loves the Trinity, and the SBU always brings what is conceived to the end and never repeats itself,” SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk said in a statement on social media. “Previously, we struck the Crimean Bridge in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition underwater.”
It was the third strike on the bridge since Russia launched its full-scale war in 2022, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Months of preparation
The SBU said the operation went on for several months, during which agents placed mines against the supports of what it called an “illegal construction.” No civilians were harmed, the agency said. The statement put the blast at 1,100 kilograms of TNT equivalent and said it severely damaged the bottom of the pier supports.
Dmytro Pletenchuk, a Ukrainian Navy spokesperson, said later that the “key and most complex” part of the bridge had been hit. The operation came two days after the SBU’s mass drone strike on Russia’s strategic aviation on June 1, and Malyuk supervised it himself.
President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the SBU in his evening address without mentioning the bridge by name. “It is always nice to give special thanks to the Security Service of Ukraine, well done!” he said.
Russia’s account
Russia’s Federal Security Service said later on June 3 that it had detained a claimed “agent of Ukrainian intelligence services” in Crimea, accusing the person of making a “powerful explosive.” Russian state media described the detainee as having built a bomb on “orders from Kyiv.” Russia’s Defense Ministry had earlier said three Ukrainian drones were shot down over Crimea overnight.
Traffic closed
Local Telegram channels said traffic was shut between 6 and 9 a.m. local time. The Mash channel reported that a drone was brought down over the bridge and its debris landed on the road. The pro-Ukrainian channel Crimean Wind said the closure was for an inspection, possibly to look at damage.
Crimean Wind then reported another “powerful explosion” near Kerch at around 3 p.m., with a helicopter patrolling the strait. Several local channels said a fresh drone attack on the peninsula was underway and the bridge had been closed again. The Kyiv Independent said it could not verify those claims.
Why it matters to Moscow
Built after Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, the bridge is a key supply and transport route for Russian forces in the occupied Ukrainian territories. Also known as the Kerch Bridge, it cost $4 billion and was meant as a political statement affirming the Kremlin’s annexation, since the peninsula has no land link to Russia. Two earlier Ukrainian attacks, in October 2022 and July 2023, did significant damage but did not put it out of use.
