Two dead in explosions on Crimea bridge, says Russia – as it blames Ukraine for attack

Published

2 years ago

July 17, 2023

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Two people have been killed following reported explosions on a bridge linking Russia with Crimea.

The couple who lost their lives in the unspecified incident were parents, according to officials in Russia’s Krasnodar region, which lies at the eastern end of the bridge.

Their daughter, who was a passenger in the car, was wounded and is in intensive care, officials said.

Ukraine war latest: ‘Water surface drones’ attack bridge linking Russia and Crimea

Putin will have renewed anxiety after bridge attack

Dominic Waghorn

International Affairs Editor

@DominicWaghorn

This second attack on the Kerch Bridge is very bad news for Russia and its leader, both strategically and symbolically.

The bridge is one of only two ways for Russia to supply the Crimean Peninsula, which it occupied in 2014.

The other route is the coastal highway on the Sea of Azov that runs through the strip of occupied land that bridges Crimea with the Russian-occupied Donbas region in the east of Ukraine. That route is also threatened by Ukrainian missile strikes.

The bridge attack has severed, for now at least, one of the two main military arteries pumping supplies of men and weapons to the front.

Read Dominic’s analysis in full here.

“The girl was injured. The hardest thing is that her parents died. No words can calm the pain of loss here,” said Vyacheslav Gladkov in a message on the Telegram messaging app.

Moscow blamed Kyiv for the blasts on the bridge – Europe’s longest – which it cast as a “terror” attack.

“Today’s attack on the Crimean bridge was carried out by the Kyiv regime. This regime is terrorist and has all the hallmarks of an international organised crime group,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“Decisions are made by Ukrainian officials and the military with the direct participation of American and British intelligence agencies and politicians. The US and Britain are in charge of a terrorist state structure.”

She did not provide any evidence to support the claims.

As Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack, the Kremlin announced on Monday it was halting the landmark UN and Turkey-brokered deal that allows the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea – which was due to expire today.

It said the decision was unrelated to the bridge blasts, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying parts of the agreement had not been fulfilled and, therefore, it was ceasing effect, adding Moscow would return to the deal once the conditions relating to Russia were met.

‘Water surface drones behind bridge attack’

Russia’s Anti-Terrorist Committee alleged Ukrainian “special services” were behind the bridge explosions, saying Ukraine attacked the bridge overnight using unmanned drones on the water surface, adding it had opened a criminal investigation.

Ukraine has denied being behind the explosions and suggested it could be a Russian provocation, though anonymous sources have suggested the SBU (Ukraine’s Security Service) was behind the incident.

Traffic on the Kerch Bridge linking Russia with Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, was halted earlier following the dawn blasts. Dash cam footage showed drivers braking sharply.

Crimean residents were urged by authorities not to travel via the bridge.

The bridge carries both road and rail traffic and is an important supply artery for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Videos and pictures verified by Sky News show the road in both directions has been damaged.

One so severely, it’s collapsed. The other has detached from the rest of the bridge.

Key Putin supply line damaged

The rail line appears to be undamaged, while the lack of damage to the road barriers indicates the explosion could have occurred under the bridge.

If the bridge has been seriously damaged, it will significantly impact Russian supply lines, according to George Barros, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin regards it as a landmark infrastructure project and, after repairs following an explosion last year, he drove a Mercedes across it.

Russia blamed Ukraine for an attack on the bridge last October, saying it was organised by Ukrainian military intelligence. Ukraine admitted only indirectly to the attack months later.

World

Thousands defy ban to join Pride march in Budapest

Published

2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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Thousands defy ban to join Pride march in Budapest

If Hungary’s authorities thought banning this year’s Pride march would keep people off the streets, they were wrong.

Thousands turned out in Budapest, defying a law which said LGBTQ+ events like this should be cancelled to protect children.

The crowd was determined to fight for their rights.

“This is a special march, not just because it was the 30th, but also because it was banned,” said Orsi, who proudly wore a rainbow headband and waved a rainbow flag.

“I mean that’s all the more reason to go out on the street and show that Budapest and Hungary is a place where everybody is welcome, where love is equal,” she added.

Attendees had been warned that just being there could mean a 500 euro fine or prison time for the organisers.

They were told police would use facial recognition cameras to identify them, but they didn’t care.

Orsi said it was worth a fine.

Leonas had travelled from Poland to show his support and was also happy to take the risk.

“LGBT rights are attacked across the whole world, and we need to defend each other and work with each other,” he said.

Viktor Orban’s government has repeatedly pitched family values against LGBTQ+ rights.

“The mother is a woman, the father is a man and leave our kids alone,” he told conservative audiences in the past.

He says he is protecting Hungary’s Christian values, but critics say this is just part of a wider attack on democracy which has happened during his 15 years in control.

The Pride ban is just the latest targeting of LGBTQ+ communities.

In 2020, the country abolished its legal recognition of transgender people, and in 2021, politicians passed a law banning the depiction of homosexuality to under-18s.

While many were outraged by the attempt to cancel the Pride march, a small number of far-right activists organised demonstrations to show their support:

“Hungary and the Hungarian nation don’t want the aggressive LGBTQ+ propaganda. They are dangerous for our families, they are dangerous for our kids,” said Gabor Kelemen, a member of the 64 Counties Youth Movement.

However, the packed streets showed many disagree.

At one point, as far as the eye could see, the march snaked through streets and across the city’s bridges. The sound of drums and whistles mixing with gay anthems blaring out of speakers.

The organisers said they believed this will be the largest Pride march ever in Budapest.

The crowd was eclectic, with Hungarians from different communities joining a demonstration which many believe is now part of a fight for Hungary’s future.

“This is not only about the complexity of Pride, not only about love or equality… for Hungarians, it’s about sticking together, supporting each other, showing the government that we believe in a different kind of Hungary. We believe in freedom, we believe in democracy,” said activist Adam Kanicsar.

Despite the ban, today Pride attendees were celebrating a victory. But make no mistake, many in Hungary do not support the parade or what they see as an attack on traditional values.

Next year, the country will hold a general election, a vote which will expose how divided Hungary really is.

World

Chants of ‘death to America’ at funeral for Iranian military commanders and scientists

Published

2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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Chants of 'death to America' at funeral for Iranian military commanders and scientists

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Tehran to mourn top military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Iran’s 12-day war with Israel.

State-run Press TV said the event – dubbed the “funeral procession of the Martyrs of Power” – was held for 60 people, including four women and four children.

It said at least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among the dead, including head of the Revolutionary Guard General Hossein Salami and the head of the guard’s ballistic missile programme, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

Their coffins were driven to Azadi Square on trucks adorned with their pictures as well as rose petals and flowers, as crowds waved Iranian flags.

Chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” could be heard.

Attending the funeral were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures, including Ali Shamkhani who was seriously wounded during the fighting and is an adviser to Iran‘s supreme leader.

There was no immediate sign of the supreme leader in the state broadcast of the funeral.

Iran’s president later thanked people for turning out.

“From the bottom of my heart, I thank you dear people,” Mr Pezeshkian wrote on social media.

“With love, you bid farewell to the martyrs of our homeland, and our voice of unity reached the ears of the world.”

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi called the deaths “hard and painful”.

Seemingly referencing the recent airstrikes, he added: “Institutions and structures, however important and valuable, return with new glory and greater strength over time, even if it takes years.”

Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said its attacks on Iran aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.

The US joined in by launching strikes on three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran, which Donald Trump said left them “obliterated”, however the exact extent of the damage remains unclear.

Iran denies having a nuclear weapons programme and the UN nuclear watchdog, which carries out inspections in Iran, has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons project.

Over almost two weeks of fighting, Israel claimed it killed around 30 Iranian commanders and 11 nuclear scientists, before a ceasefire began on Tuesday.