Explosions over Crimea as Russia reports shooting down several drones

MOSCOW – After explosions were reported at the Kerch Bridge between the Russian mainland and the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, Russia said its air defenses shot down two missiles at midday on Saturday.

“The Crimea bridge is not damaged,” the Moscow-appointed governor of the peninsula Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram. The information could not be independently verified.

Shortly afterwards, Aksyonov added there was another missile attack, which had also been repelled. This, too, could not be verified.

Road traffic over the 12-mile-long structure was temporarily suspended. Photos and videos published on social networks showed columns of smoke on the bridge, which is strategically important for Russia. Residents also reported the sound of explosions.

Ukraine, which has been defending itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion that began more than 17 months ago, plans to liberate occupied territories – including Crimea – in the course of its counteroffensive.

During the night, Russian forces had already repelled a Ukrainian drone attack over Crimea, according to Moscow’s Defense Ministry.

“Last night, Russian forces thwarted the Kyiv regime’s attempt to carry out a terrorist attack on the Crimean Peninsula using 20 unmanned aerial vehicles,” a statement from Moscow’s defense ministry issued on Saturday morning reads.

“The thwarted terrorist attack caused no casualties or damage,” the ministry said, according to a report by Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.

It said 14 drones had been destroyed by air defenses and six others were blocked. The information could not be independently verified.

Earlier in the night, air defenses had been activated over parts of Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the occupying Crimean leadership, announced on Telegram early Saturday. He urged people to remain calm.

The Russian air defense has reportedly repelled drones several times over Crimea recently.

Meanwhile, a Russian warplane crashed in the Russian Baltic Sea region of Kaliningrad during a training flight, authorities said.

“The crew of the aircraft lost their lives,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday, the Interfax news agency reported.

It was initially unclear how many occupants were on board. The exact crash location was also not disclosed. The Sukhoi Su-30 aircraft was flying over uninhabited territory when technical problems occurred, it said.

Russian fighter jets have crashed on Russian territory due to technical problems in the past. The most serious incident occurred in October 2022, when a Su-34 fighter jet crashed into a residential building in the southern Russian city of Yeysk. More than a dozen people were killed.

The most recent war analysis by the U.S. Institute for the Study of War showed that the Ukrainian armed forces have made progress in their counteroffensive in the western Zaporizhzhya region.

Ukrainian troops made “tactically significant advances,” the Washington-based institute said. Photographs showed that the Ukrainians had reached the northern outskirts of the settlement of Robotyne, which lies some 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of the town of Orichiv.

The report spoke of intensified Russian attacks near Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, which was liberated from the Ukrainians last year.

The British Ministry of Defense in turn reported that Russia was sending more troops to Zaporizhzhya in the face of Ukrainian pressure. The Russians had likely moved airborne troops from the Kherson region to the area around Orikhiv, the ministry said in its regular intelligence update.

The redeployment weakens Russia near the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, where it is increasingly beset by Ukrainian amphibious assaults.