Officials say a Ukrainian drone has struck an industrial plant deep inside Russia, injuring several people and causing a fire

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press and EMMA BURROWS Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian drone struck a Russian industrial plant some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from Ukraine, a local official said Tuesday, after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prioritized the weapon’s development and Russia pounded Ukraine with a monthly record of drones in June.

Both sides in the more than three-year war following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor have raced to improve drone technology and enhance their use on the battlefield. They have deployed increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones, turning the war into a testing ground for the new weaponry.

Ukraine is under severe strain from a Russian push at places on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, but analysts say its defenses are largely holding firm. With recent direct peace talks delivering no progress on U.S.-led international efforts to halt the fighting, Russia and Ukraine are bulking up their arsenals.

Russia last month launched 5,438 drones at Ukraine, a new monthly record, according to official data collated by The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone hit an industrial plant in Izhevsk, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of Moscow, injuring several people and starting a fire, Alexander Brechalov, head of the Udmurtia region, said. The plant’s workers were evacuated, he said.

The drone struck the Kupol Electromechanical Plant, which produces air defense systems and drones for the Russian military, according to an official with Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU.

At least two direct hits were recorded on the plant’s buildings, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Ukraine has for months been using domestically produced long-range drones to strike plants, storage sites and logistical hubs deep inside Russian territory. In May last year, a Ukrainian drone hit an early-warning radar in the Russian city of Orsk, some 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Kyiv officials claimed.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s domestic production of drones is about to increase in response to Russia’s expanded barrages.

“The priority is drones, interceptor drones and long-range strike drones,” he said on Telegram late Monday.

“This is extremely important,” he added. “Russia is investing in its unmanned capabilities, Russia is planning to increase the number of drones used in strikes against our state. We are preparing our countermeasures.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 60 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight over several regions, including 17 over Crimea, 16 over the Rostov region and four over the Saratov region.

At the same time, four Russian Shahed drones struck the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzia during the night, leaving more than 1,600 households without power, according to authorities.

Ukraine’s air force said Tuesday that Russia fired 52 Shahed and decoy drones at the country overnight.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, rebuked Russia for continuing to strike civilian areas of Ukraine while effectively rejecting a ceasefire and dragging its feet on a peace settlement.

“We urge an immediate ceasefire and a move to trilateral talks to end the war,” Kellogg said on the social platform X late Monday. “Russia cannot continue to stall for time while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine.”

Ukraine is developing its own defense industry as uncertainty remains over whether the Trump administration will continue to provide crucial military aid.

Between March and April, the United States allocated no new aid to Ukraine, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks such support.

Europe its support and for the first time since June 2022 surpassed the U.S. in total military aid, totaling 72 billion euros ($85 billion) compared with 65 billion euros ($77 billion) from the U.S., the institute said last month.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Pope Leo XIV is marking a feast day as the Vatican launches a new campaign to boost donations from the faithful

Pope Leo XIV celebrates a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, where he will bless the pallia for the new metropolitan archbishops, Sunday, June 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV celebrates a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, where he will bless the pallia for the new metropolitan archbishops, Sunday, June 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV celebrates a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, where he will bless the pallia for the new metropolitan archbishops, Sunday, June 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV celebrates a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, where he will bless the pallia for the new metropolitan archbishops, Sunday, June 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

ROME — Pope Leo XIV on Sunday celebrated a special feast day traditionally used by the Catholic Church to drum up donations from the faithful, with the Vatican under the first American pope rolling out a new campaign to urge ordinary Catholics to help bail out the deficit-ridden Holy See.

Leo celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, marking the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul and repeated his message calling for unity and communion among all Christians.

In churches around the world, Masses on the July 29 feast day often include a special collection for Peter’s Pence, a fund which both underwrites the operations of the central government of the Catholic Church and pays for the pope’s personal acts of charity.

With a promotional video, poster, QR code and website soliciting donations via credit card, PayPal, bank transfer and post office transfer, the Vatican is betting this year that an American-style fundraising pitch under the Chicago-born Leo will help keep the Holy See bureaucracy afloat and erase its 50 million to 60 million euro ($57-68 million) structural deficit.

The video features footage of Leo’s emotional first moments as pope, when he stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica and later choked up as he received the fisherman’s ring of the papacy. With an evocative soundtrack in the background, the video superimposes a message, available in several languages, urging donations to Leo via the Peter’s Pence collection.

“With your donation to Peter’s Pence, you support the steps of the Holy Father,” it says. “Help him proclaim the Gospel to the world and extend a hand to our brothers and sisters in need. Support the steps of Pope Leo XIV. Donate to Peter’s Pence.”

The fund has been the source of scandal in recent years, amid revelations that the Vatican’s secretariat of state mismanaged its holdings through bad investments, incompetent management and waste. The recent trial over the Vatican’s bungled investment in a London property confirmed that the vast majority of Peter’s Pence contributions had funded the Holy See’s budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe.

Between the revelations and the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed churches and canceled out the traditional pass-the-basket collection on June 29, Peter’s Pence donations fell to 43.5 million euros in 2022 — a low not seen since 1986 — that was nevertheless offset the same year by other investment income and revenue to the fund.

Donations rose to 48.4 million euros (about $56.7 million) in 2023 and hit 54.3 million euros (nearly $63.6 million) last year, according to the Peter’s Pence annual report issued last week. But the fund incurred expenses of 75.4 million euros ($88.3 million) in 2024, continuing the trend in which the fund is exhausting itself as it covers the Holy See’s budgetary shortfalls.

On top of the budget deficit, the Vatican is also facing a 1 billion euro (about $1.17 billion) shortfall in its pension fund that Pope Francis, in the months before he died, warned was unable in the medium term to fulfill its obligations.

Unlike countries, the Holy See doesn’t issue bonds or impose income tax on its residents to run its operations, relying instead on donations, investments and revenue generated by the Vatican Museums, and sales of stamps, coins, publications and other initiatives.

For years, the United States has been the greatest source of donations to Peter’s Pence, with U.S. Catholics contributing around a quarter of the total each year.

Vatican officials are hoping that under Leo’s pontificate, with new financial controls in place and an American math major running the Holy See, donors will be reassured that their money won’t be misspent or mismanaged.

“This is a concrete way to support the Holy Father in his mission of service to the universal Church,” the Vatican’s economy ministry said in a press release last week announcing the annual collection and new promotional materials surrounding it. “Peter’s Pence is a gesture of communion and participation in the Pope’s mission to proclaim the Gospel, promote peace, and spread Christian charity.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

More than 76,000 people have been evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine in Russia’s Kursk region, as Ukraine’s major attack on Russian sovereign territory deepens.

In Kyiv, witnesses reported explosions from counterattacks in the Ukrainian capital.

Russia has been fighting intense battles against thousands of Ukrainian troops as deep as 20 kilometres inside the Kursk region in the sixth day of Ukraine’s biggest attack on Russian sovereign territory since the start of the war in 2022.

Russian trucks were damaged in shelling by Ukrainian armed forces. (AP: Anatoliy Zhdanov/Kommersant Publishing House)

Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said 13 people had been injured in Kursk city on Sunday, including two seriously, when debris from a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a building during the night.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 14 Ukraine-launched drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles over the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday.

It said three drones were destroyed over the border Belgorod region.

One drone each was destroyed over the Bryansk and Orlov regions, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Two dead in Kyiv air raid, Ukraine says

Fragments of a missile fell on residential buildings in Brovary district, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said. (Reuters: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout)

Meanwhile, on early Sunday, it launched an air attack on Kyiv, with air defence systems engaged in repelling the strikes, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

“Air defence units operating, air raid alert continues,” Mr Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters witnesses also said they heard at least two explosions of what sounded like air defence units at work.

Fragments of a missile fell on residential buildings in Brovary district, neighbouring Kyiv, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine added on the platform.

A man and his four-year-old son were killed after debris from the downed Russian weapon fell on the house they were living in, Ukrainian officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said the house was hit by drone debris.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said the house was hit by drone debris. (Reuters: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout)

The father and son were found dead in the rubble of a building during search and rescue operations, Ukraine’s emergency services posted on Telegram on Sunday.

Three other people were wounded in the Kyiv air attack, including a 13-year-old-child, emergency services added.

Mr Yermak posted on Telegram that the attack proved it was “necessary” to destroy Russia’s military infrastructure, “because the enemy does not accept other arguments”.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said it was the second time this month that Kyiv was targeted.

Mr Popko said ballistic missiles did not reach the capital but rather suburbs took the hit, while drones aiming for the capital were shot down.

Kyiv, its surrounding region and all of eastern Ukraine were under air raid alerts with threats of ballistic weapons being launched at the country, Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram.

Ukraine incursion continues

There is fighting on the outskirts of Sudzha, about 10 kilometres from the Ukraine border. (Reuters: MIC Izvestia / IZ.RU)

The alerts comes as Ukraine units — supported by swarms of drones and heavy artillery fire — quickly carved out a sliver of the Western Russian territory beside the border, while sabotage units pierced deeper inside Russia, according to Russian war bloggers.

There is fighting on the outskirts of Sudzha, about 10 kilometres from the Ukraine border.

The town has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas exports to Europe.

Debris from a downed Ukraine-launched drone damaged an administrative building and utility facility in the town of Voronezh — about 300 kilometres from Sudzha — the region’s Governor Alexander Gusev wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.

The regional governor of Voronezh — 300 kilometres from Sudzha — said an administrative building in the town had been destroyed during a Ukraine drone attack, but no one was injured or killed.

Sixteen drones were downed over the Voronezh region, Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram.

Specialists from the Russian emergencies ministry assist residents evacuated from the Kursk region. (Reuters: Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout )

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the fight for the first time on Saturday, in a nightly video address.

Mr Zelenskyy said he had discussed the operation with top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, while not forgetting the battles troops face on the difficult eastern front.

“Today, I received several reports from commander-in-chief Syrskyi regarding the front lines and our actions to push the war onto the aggressor’s territory,” he said.

” I am grateful to every unit of the defence forces for ensuring that. Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor. ”

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces were continuing to “repel the attempted invasion by the Ukrainian armed forces”.

The ministry added intense battles were focused around Malaya Loknya, Olgovka and Ivashkovskoye, settlements about 10-20km inside Russia.

Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov said on Wednesday the attacks had been halted, but Russia has thus far failed to push the Ukrainian forces back over the border.

Asked about Ukraine’s incursion, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Friday local time the United States was “in touch with our Ukrainian counterparts,” but that he wouldn’t comment until “those conversations are complete”.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said she had sent an appeal to the United Nations demanding it condemn Ukraine’s actions in Kursk.

In a Telegram post, Ms Moskalkova said she was asking the UN Human Rights Commissioner to “take measures to prevent gross mass violations of human rights”.

Belarus accuses Ukraine of airspace violation

Meanwhile, Belarus sent more troops to reinforce its border with Ukraine on Saturday, saying Ukrainian drones had violated its airspace in the course of the Kursk incursion.

The Russian soldiers who escaped the front lines Photo shows The silhouette of a soldier holding a large gun in the window of a home. As the war in Ukraine drags into its third year, some Russian soldiers have decided to flee the front lines. This is how they did it.

Belarus’s foreign ministry summoned Ukraine’s charge d’affaires, demanded measures to ensure such incidents would not recur and suggesting a repeat would prompt Belarus to consider whether Kyiv’s diplomatic presence in Minsk was “appropriate”.

President Alexander Lukashenko, addressing a meeting in eastern Belarus, said air defence forces on Friday destroyed several Ukrainian drones after they violated Belarusian airspace in the Mogilev region bordering Russia.

Mr Lukashenko, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, said others were later destroyed near the Russian city of Yaroslavl.

“I don’t understand why Ukraine had to do this. We have to look into it,” the BelTA news agency quoted him as saying.

“But we have … made ourselves clear and conveyed to them that any provocation will not go unanswered.”

The Ukrainian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier on Saturday, the Russian defence ministry said Russian forces had intercepted six drones in the Yaroslavl region.

ABC/Wires

Russia has reported heavy fighting along the front in southern and eastern Ukraine, while Kyiv maintained a strict silence about its long-anticipated counterattack.

Key points: Kyiv says it obtained evidence that a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydro-electric station and dam

Russia says Ukraine shelled people affected by floods, killing a pregnant woman and others

Russia’s defence ministry reported intense battles in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk region

“We can state for sure that this offensive has begun,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Sochi.

“All counteroffensive attempts made so far have failed. But the offensive potential of the troops of the Kyiv regime is still preserved,” he added.

“The armed forces of Ukraine continued attempts to conduct offensive operations in the southern Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia directions,” the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said Ukrainian forces had attacked Russian lines four times with two battalions supported with tanks just south of Velyka Novosilka in Donetsk, but were pushed back.

Russian forces had also repelled two attacks just south of the city of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region, the ministry said.

It added that Ukraine had lost around 1,200 men, around 40 tanks and several aircraft over the past 24 hours.

Russia did not give its own casualty figures.

With virtually no independent reporting from the front lines, it was impossible to assess the degree to which Ukraine’s operation was under way or whether it was having success in penetrating Russian defences to drive out occupying forces.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive was ultimately expected to involve thousands of Ukrainian troops trained and equipped by the West.

Russia, which has had months to prepare its defensive lines, said it had withstood attacks since the start of the week.

Kyiv has so far said its main effort has yet to begin.

Ukraine generally forbids independent accredited journalists from reporting on its side of the front lines during offensive operations.

The initial days of the counteroffensive have been overshadowed this week by a humanitarian disaster after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam holding back the waters of the Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine.

In its latest report from the battlefield, the Russian army claimed to have destroyed more than 21 armoured vehicles in the past 24 hours.

Such claims were unverifiable.

Bakhmut gains claimed by Kyiv

In its few comments, Ukraine has reported gains of territory in the east around the city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured last month after nearly a year of the deadliest ground combat in Europe since World War II.

But Kyiv has said virtually nothing about the southern front, widely assumed to be the focus of its main assault as it tries to push towards the coast and cut Russia’s access to Crimea.

Fierce battles have left much of Bakhmut in ruins. (Reuters: Ukrainian Armed Forces)

In his nightly video address, delivered on a train after a visit to the flood zone in the south, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainian troops and repeated earlier claims of success in Bakhmut, but gave no further account.

“We see every detail. But it’s not time to talk about it today,” he said.

Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Friday the situation on the frontline was tense and heavy fighting was concentrated in the Donetsk region in the east.

“The situation is tense on all areas of the front,” Ms Maliar said.

“The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivsky and Mariinka directions, heavy fighting continues.”

She said the Ukrainian troops were repelling the Russian attacks.

Explaining the battle for Bakhmut Photo shows A silhouette of soldiers in front of a fire. The battle for Bakhmut is the longest and bloodiest fight of the war so far, so what makes the city so important and what’s the state of play?

On the southern front she said only that battles were continuing for the settlement of Velyka Novosilka and that Russian troops were mounting “active defence” at Orikhiv.

Reuters was unable to verify the situation on the battlefield.

Ukraine has been attacking targets deep in Russian-held territory for weeks in preparation for its assault.

Moscow has been striking Ukrainian cities with cruise missiles and drones.

In the latest air strikes, Ukraine said it had shot down four of six missiles overnight.

The interior ministry said one person had been killed, three were wounded, and four buildings were destroyed from falling debris.

It posted images on Telegram of firefighters attending to the smouldering wreckage of what appeared to be residential homes.

The air force also said two cruise missiles had struck a civilian object in the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy earlier on Thursday evening.

Regional governor Ihor Taburets said at least eight people were wounded.

Evidence grows of explosion at Kakhovka Dam

Evidence was growing on Friday that there was an explosion at the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine around the time it collapsed, according to Ukrainian and US intelligence reports and seismic data from Norway.

Norway’s research foundation Norsar said that data collected from regional seismic stations showed clear signals of an explosion.

And US spy satellites detected an explosion at the dam, a US official was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

Ukraine’s domestic security service said it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydro-electric station and dam in southern Ukraine.

The destruction of the facility on Tuesday unleashed mass flooding, forcing thousands of residents to flee and wreaking environmental havoc.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) posted a one-and-a-half-minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation, which featured two men who appeared to be discussing the fallout from the disaster in Russian.

Reuters could not independently verifying the recording.

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Russia, which has accused Kyiv of destroying the dam, did not immediately comment on its content.

“They [the Ukrainians] didn’t strike it. That was our sabotage group,” said one of the men on the recording, described by the SBU as a Russian soldier.

“They wanted to, like, scare [people] with that dam.

“It didn’t go according to plan, and [they did] more than what they planned for.”

The man also said “thousands” of animals had been killed at a “safari park” downstream as a result.

A flood of biblical proportions Photo shows Before and after images show the flood damage Satellite images show the damage as the Kakhovka Reservoir drains across war-ravaged Ukraine.

The other man on the line expressed surprise at the soldier’s assertion that Russian forces had destroyed the hydro-electric plant and dam.

The SBU offered no further details of the conversation or its participants. It said it had opened a criminal investigation into war crimes and “ecocide”.

“The interception by the SBU confirms that the Kakhovskaya HPP (Hydroelectric Power Plant) was blown up by a sabotage group of the occupiers,” the SBU said in a statement.

“The invaders wanted to blackmail Ukraine by blowing up the dam and staged a man-made disaster in the south of our country.”

Hundreds of Ukrainians were rescued from rooftops in the flooded areas on Thursday. The governor of the southern region of Kherson said some 600 square kilometres of the region were under water.

“By blowing up the Kakhovskaya HPP dam, the Russian Federation definitively proved that it is a threat to the entire civilised world,” SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk was quoted as saying in the statement.

“Our task is to bring to justice not only the leaders of Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s regime, but also the ordinary perpetrators of crimes,” he said.

More than 1,000 homes in the Kherson region have been flooded. (AP Photo: Libkos)

Flood rescue continues

Ukraine evacuated more people on Friday from southern areas where officials said at least five people had been killed in flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said four people had died and 13 people were missing in the Kherson region, and that one person had died in the Mykolayiv region.

A Russian-appointed official said eight people had died in Russian-held territory and more than 5,800 had been evacuated from their homes.

Mr Zelenskyy said the authorities were working round the clock to save people.

“The evacuation continues. Wherever we can get people out of the flood zone, we are doing it,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

At least five people had been killed in flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, officials say. (AP: Felipe Dana)

Kherson’s military administration said 2,528 people, including 140 children had been evacuated from flooded areas.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting that preliminary estimates put environmental damage at 55 billion hryvnias ($2.23 billion).

Kremlin says Ukraine killed dam flood victims

The Kremlin has accused Ukrainian forces of killing civilian victims of flooding, including one pregnant woman, in repeated shelling attacks.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the purported attacks “barbaric”.

Reuters could not independently verify Mr Peskov’s assertions and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has accused Russian forces of shelling civilians located on flooded territory which it controls.

Mr Peskov said Russian rescue workers were doing their best to help people in flooded areas on the east bank of the Dnipro River, which is under Russian control, but were being constantly shelled by Ukrainian forces.

“All the work is taking place under the shelling of the Ukrainian armed forces. This shelling does not stop. This is more than barbaric shelling,” Mr Peskov told reporters.

“As a result of this shelling there are dead among the flood victims, there was even a pregnant woman.”

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Russian cities report drone attack

A drone struck an apartment building in the southern Russian city of Voronezh on Friday, in what investigators called a “terrorist act” on behalf of Ukraine, prompting the regional governor to order a state of emergency.

Drones also fell on an office building in Belgorod and near an oil depot in Kursk, officials in those cities said.

Though they caused no serious damage, the attacks underlined the increasing frequency of such attacks in areas of Russia close to the border with Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine are swapping blame over fighting in Belgorod Photo shows A soldier stands next to an army tanker giving a thumbs up. Russian partisan groups have taken responsibility for the attacks while the government blames Ukrainian “saboteurs”.

Russia’s state Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case in connection with the incident in Voronezh, 180 kilometres from the border, against “persons acting in the interests of the military-political leadership of Ukraine”.

There was no official reaction from Ukraine, which does not comment on alleged military operations inside Russian territory.

“There was a violent explosion. I screamed. And [the plumber] who was fixing my drain, he saw it; he shouted that it was a drone,” a woman who witnessed the Voronezh incident said.

Investigators said there was structural damage to the apartment block, whose facade was partly smashed in and scorched.

Three people were slightly hurt by broken glass but did not need hospital treatment, regional governor Alexander Gusev said.

In Belgorod, some 35 kilometres from the Ukraine border, the boom of anti-air defences shooting down incoming targets has become a daily occurrence, and people interviewed on the street by Reuters said they were used to it.

Olga Maskayeva, 71, who lives with her 99-year-old father, said: “Where are we supposed to go? If it happens, it happens.”

Reuters/ABC

Russian authorities said operations had been suspended for about three hours between 4am and 7am local time. It gave no reason for the temporary closure, but said the bridge had been reopened and was functioning as normal.

The 12-mile-long Kerch bridge, also known as the Crimean bridge, consists of a separate roadway and railway at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and Azov Sea.

It allows the flow of troops and goods into Russian-occupied eastern and southern Ukrainian territories.

It is considered one of Kyiv’s most desired military and symbolic targets of the war.

It also holds significant personal value to Vladimir Putin who sees it as a visible reminder of one his greatest political achievements – the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The Russian president personally unveiled the bridge, leading a ceremonial convoy of trucks across it in 2018.

For Ukraine, the bridge is a hated symbol of Russia’s illegal 11-year occupation of its lands.

Footage released by the SBU showed an explosion next to one of the many support pillars of the bridge. Pictures from the aftermath showed a chunk of the bridge’s metal barriers lying across one of the lanes.

The bridge was previously targeted by Ukraine in 2022 using a truck bomb and in a sea drone strike in 2023. Both attacks caused extensive damage to the road section and sparked costly repairs.

The SBU said: “So today we continued this tradition underwater. There is no place for any illegal Russian facilities on the territory of our state.”