Russia claims Ukrainian missile downed in Kerch, Crimea bridge traffic is halted 

On Sunday, July 9, 2023, the head of the occupation administration of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, announced that a missile had been shot down "near Kerch". This message appeared on his official Telegram channel at 12:16 p.m.

“The air defense forces in the Kerch region successfully shot down a cruise missile. There were no injuries or casualties,” according to Aksyonov.

Earlier, it was reported that at around 12:00 p.m. people in the city of Kerch heard several loud sounds that seemed like air defense activities. These sounds, similar to explosions, were heard multiple times, about 3-4 times.

According to the Russian Telegram-media Mash, traffic on the Crimean bridge has been temporarily halted in both directions. They state that this is “due to an attempted attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kerch region.”

The pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel Krymskyi Viter reports on the length of the traffic jam at the entrance and exit from Russian-occupied Crimea via the Crimean bridge:

From the Kuban side, the traffic jam is a little over 6 kilometers.

From Kerch, it's approximately 3 kilometers.

• On October 8, 2022, an explosion and fire occurred on the Crimean Bridge. The occupation authorities reported three deaths and accused Ukraine of causing the explosion. 

• Later, the head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, revealed that the FSB had apprehended 22 Russian suspects in connection with this incident.