Ukrainian officials cheering the deadly terrorist attack against the Crimean bridge demonstrate “cynical and monstrous” behavior, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
The Monday morning blasts killed two Russian civilians traveling via the strategic transport link and left their 14-year-old daughter an orphan.
“They said in Kiev that the incident was the result of a joint operation of its Navy and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). It confirms that the nation’s political leadership and special services are linked to this terrorist act,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian media earlier in the day cited sources in the SBU as claiming credit for the attack. It involved naval drones, they said, a fact that Russian investigators have confirmed. Reaching the bridge “was difficult, but we finally managed it,” according to the source quoted by multiple outlets.
A spokesman for the SBU has promised to release details about the operation after the conflict with Russia is over. “For now we are watching with keen interest how one of the symbols of the Putin regime failed again under military use,” Artyom Dekhtyarenko said.
The previous successful Ukrainian attack on the Crimean bridge happened in October 2022, when a truck carrying a disguised bomb blew up on it. The explosion killed three civilians, including the driver of the vehicle. Kiev never claimed credit for the blast, but earlier this month a Ukrainian deputy defense minister mentioned the date as Kiev’s “first strike on the Crimean bridge.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry also blasted Ukrainian officials, who “mocked” the fatalities in the Monday attack. The ministry called the reaction “cynical and monstrous” and said it “leads to conclusions about the moral and mental level of politicians in Kiev.” The statement did not call out any particular Ukrainian lawmaker by name.
The Russian government has rejected Ukrainian claims that the bridge is a legitimate military target and has said the damage done to it will be swiftly repaired. Permanently cutting the Crimean Peninsula’s links to the rest of Russia “is impossible to achieve,” Moscow stated.