Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on July 17 that damage caused to a major rail and road bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula will be completely repaired by November 1, while President Vladimir Putin vowed "a response" to the attack, which killed two people and seriously injured their child.
Khusnullin said one part of the road on the bridge was destroyed and will have to be rebuilt, but there is no damage to the bridge pylons.
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Khusnullin said on Telegram on July 18 that road traffic had partially opened.
Putin, who ordered the bridge built after Russia seized and forcibly annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, called the attack a terrorist act and said he wanted proposals on ensuring the security of the bridge. The bridge had to be rebuilt once before after an attack in October.
The Russia-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said earlier that an "emergency" had occurred on the bridge as video and photos reportedly taken at the scene circulated on social media showing a twisted section of roadway with a portion missing.
Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the attack was carried out by two Ukrainian drones, without providing further details, while the Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case into "an act of terrorism."
Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the incident, but Ukrainian media reported that security services had deployed maritime drones.
The damage caused to the bridge could have an impact on Moscow's ability to supply its troops in southern Ukraine, and reveals that Russian infrastructure is vulnerable to the drones -- small, fast remote-controlled boats packed with explosives.
A spokesman for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Artem Dekhtyarenko, said details of the attack on the bridge would be revealed after Ukraine defeats Russia.
"So far, we are watching with interest how one of the symbols of the Putin regime once again failed to withstand the military load," Dekhtyarenko told RBC-Ukraine.
Russia's claims that Ukraine carried out the attack could not be independently verified. They were described in comments to Ukrainian media by Natalya Humenyuk, a Ukrainian military spokeswoman, as a potential provocation, "which the occupiers of Crimea rush to report very loudly [and] are a typical way of solving problems by authorities of Crimea and the aggressor state."
In a separate statement made to RFE/RL, Humenyuk said that the reports should be treated with skepticism since occupation authorities have recently strengthened the security of the bridge and added that the situation could be used by Russia as a bargaining chip in a deal to allow passage of Russian and Ukrainian grain.
"[The Russians] concentrated their efforts as much as possible on all kinds of protection of this objective," Humenyuk said.
Hours after the blast the Kremlin said Russia wouldn't extend a grain deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea.
The UN-brokered deal that allows the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain was due to expire at midnight on July 17.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia's refusal to extend the accord had nothing to do with the incident on the Crimea Bridge and was linked with the failure of the deal to fulfill the conditions related to Russia.
He did not give details, but Moscow has often complained that hurdles remained to its exports of grain and fertilizers, even though they did not fall directly under sanctions implemented by the West.
The 19-kilometer road-and-rail bridge opened in 2018 and is an important transportation route between Russia and Ukraine's Crimea region. It consists of two parallel structures, one for road traffic and one for railway traffic.
The bridge was partially closed after a major explosion in October damaged its structure in what Moscow claimed was a terrorist act.
Earlier this month, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar appeared to acknowledge Ukraine was involved in the previous attack, saying in a social media post marking the 500th day of the war that "273 days ago, [we] launched the first strike on the Crimean bridge to disrupt Russian logistics."
Following that incident, Russia rebuilt the bridge, with Putin notably driving a car across the structure on December 5 following extensive repairs.