By Olha Chepil | 2025-06-10

KYIV -- The war in Ukraine has plunged beneath the surface.

At dawn on June 3, the equivalent of 1,100kg of explosives detonated underwater beneath the Crimean Bridge -- the third major strike against one of Russia's most fortified assets. The blast crippled the bridge's structure, exposing its vulnerability once again.

The operation took months of planning, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said. The explosion tore through the bridge supports at 4.44am, hitting a critical link between Russia and occupied Crimea.

"There is no place for any illegal facilities of Russia on the territory of our state," SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk said on Telegram.

"The Crimean Bridge is a completely legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy has used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops. Crimea is Ukraine, and any manifestations of occupation will receive a firm response."

A blow from below

According to the SBU, the blast heavily damaged the bridge's underwater columns at the sea floor.

"The bridge is effectively in a catastrophic state," reads the SBU's post on Telegram.

Ukraine's new underwater drones may have been used in the attack, military analyst Vladislav Seleznev said.

"We currently have two innovations. And perhaps we already have some use [for them] in real combat," Seleznev, a war correspondent and former spokesman for the Ukrainian general staff, told Kontur.

"I'm talking about the Toloka drones with its warhead of up to 500kg and the Marichka drone, which has a warhead equivalent to 1,000kg of TNT. So, it is quite possible that these particular combat attack drones were put to work."

The Marichka drone is a 6-meter-long underwater device capable of traveling up to 1,000km while carrying a payload of up to 1,000kg.

There is still no clear information about what exactly caused the explosion.

Damage to the supports could lead to a partial collapse, especially during flooding or storms, making repairs risky and technically complex, say military analysts.

"The bridge structure itself may be damaged. And this is a weighty fact, because durijng autumn and spring storms, it may simply not remain standing. It could be washed away and collapse," SBU reservist Maj. Gen. Viktor Yahun told Kontur.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged an explosion near the Crimean Bridge but claimed it caused no damage.

"The explosion was real. Nothing was damaged. The bridge is working," said Peskov said during a June 4 press briefing.

However, independent sources and analysts have pointed to significant structural damage, casting doubt on Russian statements.

"Russians are performatively trying to show that nothing terrible happened. 'So what if the barrier was damaged a little? We'll immediately fix it, patch up the asphalt, and cars will move about as normal,'" said Yahun.

"It won't stand there the way it stands now," he predicted.

Top target: the Crimean Bridge

Kyiv has viewed the Crimean Bridge as a priority military target from the start, as it carries weapons, fuel and troops.

Russian forces use the bridge to move from Krasnodar territory into occupied Crimea and then to southern fronts, including Melitopol, Berdyansk and Mariupol.

"This is the main logistical route. If Russians could previously still transport something there by ships, now they are afraid to do so because they fear Ukrainian drones," said Yahun.

Ukraine has damaged the bridge twice before. In 2022, a truck exploded while crossing, collapsing part of the roadway. In 2023, a surface drone strike damaged two spans.

Following those attacks, Russia ramped up security, installing barges and barriers against sea drones, bolstering air defense and electronic warfare systems and increasing patrols and diver inspections.

"The defense system around the Crimean Bridge is now even stronger than that of Moscow because the bridge is a symbol of the Crimean Spring," Mykhaylo Zhyrokhov, a military scholar and historian, told Kontur, referring to the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea. "That's why barges and antiaircraft guns are deployed all across Crimea."

However, Ukraine's 2025 operation bypassed every layer of protection, demonstrating both the technical sophistication of Ukrainian forces and the bridge's vulnerability to unconventional tactics.

"The bridge ... makes Crimea a kind of ... transport hub from which military cargo is shipped out," said Seleznev.

"The third attack on the bridge is not random. It's extremely important for the Ukrainian army to destroy this structure."

A 'sacred' place

The Crimean Bridge holds both strategic and symbolic value for Russia. Its 2018 opening was marked by a triumphant media campaign, with Russian President Vladimir Putin personally leading a column of trucks across it, giving the bridge political weight.

"Putin inaugurated this place. Everything that Putin introduces and anywhere Putin appears are sacred for Russians," said Yahun.

Any damage to the bridge is viewed as an attack on the legitimacy of Russia's annexation of Crimea and undermines the image of control, say analysts.

"It's like an umbilical cord that tied Crimea to Russia's maternal body. And now it's slowly being torn apart," said Seleznev.

With each new strike, it becomes clearer that no site in Russian-occupied territory is safe, especially the Crimean Bridge.