Ukraine Attack Shuts Kerch Bridge After Plans Leaked

Russian authorities in Crimea closed a vital crossing between the Russian mainland and the peninsula after Moscow accused Kyiv of launching dozens of drones at the territory overnight.

Traffic crossing the Crimean Bridge, also known as the Kerch Bridge, was "temporarily blocked" in the early hours of Sunday, according to local Telegram channels.

Russia's Defense Ministry said early on Sunday that Ukraine had targeted Crimea with 38 airborne drones in an overnight attack. Russian air defense systems downed all of the incoming drones, Moscow said. It did not specify where the uncrewed vehicles were shot down, nor whether there was any damage.

Several anonymous Telegram channels had reported explosions close to the eastern Crimean port city of Feodosia early on Sunday. The city is approximately 100 kilometers from the Kerch Bridge.

The Kerch Bridge is a strategically key link between Russia's Krasnodar region and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow has controlled since it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the bridge in the more than two years of all-out war, and has used Western-supplied long-range missiles to attack the crucial supply route for Russian troops.

Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military for comment via email.

The brief closure of the Kerch Bridge and the flurry of reported drone strikes come shortly after a senior Russian state media official published a recording purportedly capturing discussions between German military officials on the provision of military aid to Ukraine, including long-range missiles.

German officials discussed how Ukraine could "strike the Crimea Bridge," Margarita Simonyan, the head of the state-controlled outlet Russia Today, said in a post to Telegram on Friday. The meeting took place on February 19, Simonyan said.

Berlin has since suggested the recording was authentic. "According to our assessment, a conversation in the air force division was intercepted," a German defense ministry spokesperson told AFP. "We are currently unable to say for certain whether changes were made to the recorded or transcribed version that is circulating on social media."

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that an unknown number of senior German officials had confirmed the recording's authenticity to the newspaper, and that the meeting had taken place via online conferencing platform WebEx.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles, which Kyiv first requested in May 2023. Pressure to commit the air-launched missiles has grown in recent months, including within Scholz's own party.

Scholz said on Saturday that the apparent leak was a "very serious matter" and that authorities were investigating.

Newsweek has approached the German Defense Ministry for comment via email.

"We demand an explanation from Germany," Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

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