Crimea Bridge Smoke Just 'Exercise,' Russian Official Says as Videos Emerge

The Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects Russia with Crimea, was temporarily closed on Wednesday because of "exercises," Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian politician acting as head of the peninsula since 2014 said, as videos emerged of smoke rising above the strategically vital structure.

"The Crimean bridge is closed due to exercises being held in the area. Traffic will be restored in a few hours. I earnestly ask everyone to trust only trusted sources of information," Aksyonov said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

The bridge was reopened several hours later although videos circulated on social media showing thick smoke in the area of the bridge. Aksyonov did not elaborate on what exercises were being carried out or comment on the emerging footage.

The local Kerch.FM portal reported that a column of smoke had appeared over the bridge and that it was visible from different parts of the city of Kerch.

"By 10:30 [a.m.] the white smoke cleared and it was clear that the bridge was intact," it said.

The Kerch Strait Bridge, which is Russia's sole land link with the annexed Crimean Peninsula, came under attack in October 2022. Ukraine denied involvement, but Russian President Vladimir Putin accused its secret services of carrying out a "terrorist attack" on the bridge, and retaliated by targeting critical infrastructure for weeks in at least 14 Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.

The October 2022 explosion damaged a key supply route for Russia's forces amid the Kremlin's flagging war effort in Ukraine.

Oleksiy Arestovych, who served as Ukrainian presidential adviser until he resigned in January, said earlier this month that Kyiv's anticipated upcoming counteroffensive will likely target the Kerch Strait Bridge. He said one of the goals of the counteroffensive may be an operation in the south of the country that will seek to cut Russians off from the land corridor to Crimea, paving the way for Ukraine to recapture the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Putin nine years ago.

If Ukrainian troops are successful in blocking the narrow isthmus that links Crimea to the rest of Ukraine, then the bridge will become Crimea's sole supply channel, Arestovych said, adding that destroying it will leave the annexed peninsula without help.

"We will demolish the Crimean bridge. All this is possible under certain conditions, we are currently arranging the conditions," Arestovych said.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment via email.

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