Ukraine says it struck Crimea bridge

Kyiv: Ukraine said Tuesday that it had struck the Crimean bridge for the third time since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, after spending months planting explosives on support structure beneath the water.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear, but the Security Service of Ukraine, the intelligence agency known as the SBU, released a statement and a video that it said showed one of the detonations.

"Today, at 4:44 a.m., without any civilian casualties, the first explosive device was detonated," the agency said in a statement. "The underwater support pillars were severely damaged at the seabed level -- aided by the equivalent of 1,100 kg of TNT."

Surveillance footage released by the agency and verified by The New York Times shows an explosion under the Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects Russia's mainland and the Crimean peninsula. The attack appeared to target support features of the bridge.

It was not immediately clear how much damage the bridge sustained. A photo from the agency shows some damage to its railing.

Traffic on the bridge was suspended for about three hours Tuesday morning, and then later in the day, about an hour after the SBU published its report, it was closed again for about two hours, according to the Telegram channel that tracks the bridge's operation. The reasons for the closures were not disclosed. The bridge reopened by late afternoon.

The head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, wrote in a statement that Russia had continued to use the bridge "as a logistical artery to supply its troops," making it a legitimate target.

A Russian military blog, Rybar, run by a former Russian army service member, Mikhail Zvinchuk, said in a Telegram post that a Ukrainian underwater drone had attacked the bridge early Tuesday but that it had hit only a defensive barrier around one of the pylons. Debris fell on the road above, Rybar said in the post.

The strike on the bridge came two days after Ukraine conducted one of the most ambitious operations of the war deep inside Russia, targeting the Russian strategic bombing fleet.

The Kerch Strait Bridge stretches for 12 miles and is a primary supply route for Moscow's forces fighting in southern Ukraine. It is deeply symbolic for President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who presided over its opening in 2018.

In October 2022, a truck laden with explosives was detonated as it crossed the bridge, causing a fireball large enough to rupture fuel tanks on a passing train and setting it on fire. The blast pulled part of the roadway off its joints and into the sea.

The Russians set about repairs, but 10 months later, the bridge was hit again, this using maritime drones to target support pillars.

After each attack, the Russians worked to repair the vital artery and increased the defenses around it.

According to American officials, the Russians have taken extraordinary steps to defend the bridge. These include the installation of underwater barriers to defend its stanchions from attacks at or below the water line and the deployment of the most sophisticated air defense systems to defend it from aerial rockets and drones.

Also Tuesday, the Russians directed a barrage of rockets at the center of Sumy, a city in the northeast near Ukraine's border with Russia that is home to more than 200,000 civilians, including many who fled fighting along the border.

The attack killed at least three people, wounding another 25 and setting cars on fire, according to local officials.

One rocket remained unexploded in an apartment on the top floor of a nine-story building. Videos from the scene showed many burning cars and destroyed houses, with emergency workers evacuating the wounded.

That attack on Sumy is part of an increase in Russian offensive operations on the front. In May, Russian troops gained more than twice as much territory as they did in April, seizing roughly 173 square miles (449 square kilometers) of land, according to DeepState, a Ukrainian research group that uses combat footage to map the battlefield.

Most of those gains have come in eastern Ukraine, south of the town of Kostiantynivka, and in a push across the border in the Sumy region, where Russian forces captured another village Tuesday, according to military analysts.

Ivan Shevtsov of Ukraine's Steel Border Brigade said Russia had advanced about 4 miles into the country along a 9-mile-long stretch of border in the Sumy region.

Military analysts say that if Russia advanced 12 miles into Ukraine, its forces could target the city of Sumy with short-range weapons like small exploding drones. Such attacks in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, have killed at least 150 civilians; a United Nations commission said last week that those attacks amounted to crimes against humanity.

Across Ukraine over the past day, Russian drone attacks killed at least 10 civilians and wounded more than 50, Ukrainian officials said.

"It is obvious: Without global pressure -- without decisive actions from the United States, Europe and everyone in the world who has the power -- Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire," Zelenskyy said in a statement.

Amid the escalating violence, Zelenskyy's chief of staff flew to the United States, accompanied by a Ukrainian delegation, for talks with the Trump administration.