Russian forces shot down two Ukrainian rockets targeting the Crimean bridge on Saturday, while 20 drones were launched at the peninsula, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
Ukraine tried to strike the bridge across the Kerch Strait with S-200 rockets, Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday. There were no casualties or damage, it said, even as footage and photos on social media show smoke billowing from the bridge.
Several explosions were reportedly heard on Saturday near the bridge, built after Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. The local authorities stopped traffic on the bridge for around an hour, according to reports.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Crimea, said on Telegram that “no damage occurred” to the infrastructure. The bridge partially collapsed in October 2022 after an explosion, before reopening in February.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova labeled the attack an “act of terrorism” on social media. “There can be no justification for such barbaric actions and they will not go unanswered,” she wrote in a post on Telegram.
Of the 20 drones targeted at Crimea on Saturday, 14 were shot down by Russian air defenses and six were jammed electronically, the Associated Press reported. No casualties or damage were reported.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 20 drones were launched toward the annexed peninsula during the morning.
Meanwhile, the Russian army was targeting the Kherson region, Ukrainian officials said. Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the Ukrainian region, said that two men were severally injured by Russian attacks.
“The occupiers continue to terrorize Kherson region. The shelling has not stopped since morning,” Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
