Explosions near Crimea bridge with smoke around. Russian forces claim to have shot down Ukrainian missiles

On August 12, the head of the Russian occupation administration of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, announced attempts by the Ukrainian army to hit the Kerch bridge with missiles

The relevant message appeared on his official Telegram channel.

"In the area of the Kerch Strait, the air defence forces shot down two enemy (Ukrainian - ed.) missiles," Aksyonov said.

"The Crimean bridge was not damaged," added the Kremlin-appointed 'head of the Republic of Crimea'.

There is also no information on casualties.

In turn, the Russian Ministry of Defence claims that there were not two missiles, but one.

According to the Russian defence ministry, it was an "S-200 anti-aircraft guided missile converted into a strike version".

"The Ukrainian missile was timely detected and intercepted in mid-air by Russian air defence systems," the Russian Defence Ministry said.

Before that, photos with four places of smoke appeared online, both on the bridge itself and near it. They show two clusters of black smoke and two of white.

Oleg Kryuchkov, Aksyonov's information policy adviser, explained the appearance of white smoke as a disguise.

"The special services put up a smoke screen," Kryuchkov said.

Starting from 12:36 p.m., the occupying Russian forces blocked the traffic on the Kerch bridge.

Russian coast guard boats were sent there.

Ukrainian strikes on the Crimean bridge

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian armed invasion, the Ukrainian forces have already conducted two successful strikes on the Crimean (Kerch) Bridge, which connects Crimea with Russia’s Kuban, and is important for the logistics of the Russian occupation contingent in southern Ukraine:

On 8 October 2022, a truck located on the bridge exploded, causing two half-sections of the road part of the bridge to collapse and damaging the railway track;

On 17 July 2023, two road spans of the bridge were damaged as a result of a munition detonated by naval drones.

In each of these cases, the Russian side reported two civilians killed who were travelling across the bridge in their own vehicles.

According to the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, both operations were carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine.

As the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly pointed out, the Crimean bridge was built illegally, it helps Russia in the war, and is therefore a legitimate military target that will be destroyed.

At the same time, no air alert is ever announced, either in Crimea or in Moscow, where Ukrainian drones also reach.