Russian officials said two people were killed and one person injured as a result of the blast, which happened before dawn on the road-and-rail bridge, which links Russia to Crimea across the Kerch Strait, the Reuters news agency reported.
Traffic was halted after a section of road was blown up in what Russia said was a Ukrainian "terrorist act," according to Reuters.
It was not immediately clear if the incident was a deliberate attack and Ukrainian authorities did not directly claim responsibility, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military, Natalia Humeniuk, said the attack could have been an act of provocation by Russia itself.
"The creation of such provocations, which the occupying authorities of Crimea report immediately very loudly, is a typical way of solving problems by the authorities of Crimea and the aggressor country," Humeniuk said, as quoted by Reuters.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media cited unidentified sources as saying that Ukraine's security service was behind the incident.
According to state news agency Ukrinform, the attack on the Kerch Strait bridge was a "special operation" conducted by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Ukrainian navy.
Unmanned surface vessels were used to attack the bridge, Ukrinform said.
Various media outlets noted that the bridge, a hated symbol of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula, was damaged on a day that Russian President Vladimir Putin must decide whether to extend a UN-brokered deal that allows the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter: "Any illegal structures used to deliver Russian instruments of mass murder are necessarily short-lived ... regardless of the reasons for the destruction."
The strategic bridge over the Kerch Strait is an important supply route for Russian forces in Crimea and in southern Russian-occupied Ukraine, Polish news media reported.
Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and the 19-kilometre road-and-rail bridge was opened with great fanfare by President Vladimir Putin four years later, according to Reuters.
Moscow on February 24, 2022 launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea, the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War II.
Monday is day 509 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters, ukrinform.net
