Drone attack in Crimea prompts evacuation, brief bridge closure

Sergei Aksyonov said there was an explosion at the Krasnohvardiiske depot in central Crimea, but reported no damage or casualties. Images shared by state media showed a thick cloud of gray smoke at the location.

Aksyonov attributed it to a Ukrainian drone strike. There was no immediate comment from kyiv.

Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion of the country.

The brief traffic disruption on the Crimean bridge, some 180km east of the drone incident, came five days after multiple explosions there killed two people and damaged a section of road, the second major attack on the bridge since the start of the war.

The 19 km rail and road bridge is a vital logistical link for the Russian forces and is also heavily used by Russian tourists who flock to Crimea in summer.

Russia accuses Ukraine of being responsible for the attacks on the bridge. The kyiv authorities welcomed them, without directly claiming their authorship.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that the bridge is a legitimate target because it is a military supply route for Russia.

“This is the route used to fuel the war with munitions and this is done on a daily basis,” he noted.

Russia is on high alert for incidents on the bridge and an official Telegram channel asked the population not to panic in case of alarm.

In a further sign of concern for security in Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, Aksyonov’s adviser, warned people not to post images of critical infrastructure on the Internet.

It also urged people who knew the authors of such publications to report them to the Ministry of the Interior or the FSB security service.

“Remember that a video posted on the network of military installations or other critical installations is work for the enemy,” he said.

(Reporting by Caleb Davis and Mark Trevelyan; Editing in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)