Ukraine preventing Russia from bringing military supplies across the Crimea bridge would be a “major blow” to Moscow’s forces operating on the peninsula, a military expert has said.

“The Kerch bridge is one of the major routes in and as such it’s always going to be the subject of attacks,” defence analyst Stuart Crawford tells the BBC.

He adds that details around what happened remain unclear, because neither side wants to release too much information, but he says it appears Ukraine used naval drones to attack the bridge’s infrastructure.

Responding to Russian claims that Western countries could be complicit in the Crimea bridge attack, Crawford says Western intelligence may have been used in preparing the attack but it's unlikely they were physically involved in the operation itself.

Crawford also says he believes the alleged drones were domestically made, rather than provided to Ukraine by its allies.

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify

Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of attacking the Kerch bridge with two “unmanned surface vessels” (USVs) – drones that travel over water rather than through the air.

As yet, the BBC not seen any visual evidence to confirm this.

USVs (also known as drone ships) are vessels that operate without a crew.

They come in all shapes and sizes and are used for a variety of tasks, including environmental monitoring.

They can also be used for military purposes, like clearing mines, carrying out surveillance or detonating near targets.

Since the start of the conflict, Ukraine has used USVs to attack Russian ships and, reportedly, Russia’s main naval base in Crimea.

While it’s unclear how many USVs Ukraine has, directing explosive-laden ships towards targets isn’t new.

But some analysts suggest Ukraine’s extensive deployment of high-tech USVs - at relatively low cost - marks a new era for naval warfare.

A Russian fighter jet has reportedly crashed into the Sea of Azov near the Russian city of Yeysk.

The SU-25's pilot was able to eject from the jet, local officials were quoted by Reuters news agency as saying. The BBC has not yet verified the pilot's condition.

Several unverified videos purportedly showing a white parachute descending over the sea while the plane crashed into the water are being shared on social media.

Yeysk is a port town in Russia’s Krasnodar territory, across the Azov Sea from the Russian-controlled Donetsk region in Ukraine.

The BBC's analysis editor Ros Atkins answers key questions about what happened to the bridge linking mainland Russia with occupied Crimea.

In other news, today marks the ninth anniversary of the downing of the MH17 flight.

The Malaysia Airlines flight, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was travelling over Ukraine on 17 July 2014 when it disappeared from radar.

The plane crashed after being hit by a Russian-made Buk missile over eastern Ukraine, an investigation later found.

A total of 283 passengers, including 80 children, and 15 crew members were on board.

The tragedy "will never be forgotten", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has tweeted, external today.

Russia "will be held fully accountable for all crimes committed in Ukraine," he adds.

A Dutch court found two Russians and a Ukrainian separatist guilty in absentia last year.

Image source, Reuters

For those just joining us, here's a round up of today's events:

• Two people - the parents of a young girl - have been killed in an attack on the Kerch bridge, which links mainland Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula
• Local news reported overnight explosions and Russian officials later accused Ukraine's forces of launching a "terrorist attack" on the bridge
• A Ukrainian security service source has told BBC Russian it was behind the attack, and that water-based drones were used
• There are long traffic jams on routes out of Crimea and railway delays
• In other news, Russia has confirmed it will not extend the Black Sea grain export deal, which expires tonight
• Ukraine claims to has retaken 210 square km (81 square miles) of territory since the start of its counter-offensive

Image source, Leon Neal/PA Wire

Away from developments in Crimea and the grain deal, the UK has sanctioned 14 people related to what it describes as Moscow’s forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

The UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said today that Russia’s “chilling programme of forced child deportation” is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to “wipe Ukraine from the map”.

He added that the sanctions – which have targeted Russia’s ministers for education and culture, among others – would hold to account those who “prop up Putin’s regime”.

Ukraine says that more than 19,000 children have been taken from occupied areas since the full-scale invasion began, but Russia says it is protecting orphans and children abandoned in conflict zones.

The UN has said that Moscow's actions amount to war crimes.

• Russia claims Ukraine's special forces and navy used an unmanned drone, operating on the surface of the Black Sea, to attack the bridge

• Separately, Russian social media accounts have been sharing pictures of what appears to be a jet ski - claiming a similar converted vehicle was used to attack the bridge
• But there is no firm evidence, and Ukraine has been deploying other forms of water-based drones - generally referred to as uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) - for months
• Ukraine's minister for digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, says the bridge was hit by naval drones , externalin a social media post on Telegram about Russia's own aerial drone production
• Earlier Kyiv hinted in an official statement it was responsible - while Ukrainian security sources have told the BBC that Ukraine ordered the attack

What might have caused the damage?published at 13:04 British Summer Time 17 July 2023

13:04 BST 17 July 2023

Joshua Cheetham and Tom Spencer
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

The BBC has been speaking to military experts about what may have caused the damage to the Kerch bridge.

Based on images of the bridge, there appears to be explosive damage underneath the road surface and to the support structures, says Stuart Ray at McKenzie Intelligence.

He suggests either a drone or ship laden with explosives, or a small special forces team, could have been responsible.

The damage is not very extensive, he says, although there are stress fractures that will likely compromise the integrity of the bridge and take time to repair.

Alexander Lord at Sibylline security consultancy says the attack is highly likely to have been carried out by Ukraine - and appears to have been a deliberate attempt to target Russian logistics.

Russia’s foreign ministry says Western countries could be complicit in what it is calling a Ukrainian “terrorist” attack on the Crimea bridge.

If the drones allegedly used in the attack were of “Western origin” - and if Ukraine’s allies were involved in “planning, sponsoring and carrying out this operation” - that would “confirm their complicity in the terrorist activities of the Kyiv regime”, the ministry says.

A spokeswoman from the ministry earlier said, without evidence, that Ukrainian decisions were taken "with the direct participation of American and British intelligence agencies and politicians”.

A Russian couple killed in Monday’s explosion on the Crimea bridge were going on a family holiday to the peninsula, a Russian governor says.

They were travelling with their 14-year-old daughter, who was injured.

The family were travelling from Belgorod region, close to Russia’s border with Ukraine, according to the governor of that region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The girl sustained injuries to her head and chest, but was conscious and her condition was not life-threatening, Reuters quoted local emergency services as saying.

An unidentified relative told the RBK news outlet the family had driven at night to avoid traffic jams.

As we've just reported, there are long traffic jams on the remaining road route out of Crimea.

And - while trains are moving again across the Kerch bridge - several delays on the railway between Crimea and Russia have been reported, according to the Interfax agency.

The ferry service between Crimea and Russia has also resumed - but the Russian-installed ministry for transport on the peninsula says it's only for cargo at the moment.

Image source, RIA

Long traffic jams have built up on roads leaving Crimea into other areas of occupied Ukraine, Russian state media reports.

The Kerch bridge is the main driving route to mainland Russia out of Crimea, where around 50,000 Russian tourists are visiting currently.

A ferry over the Kerch strait is also available, but local authorities have closed this to all but freight traffic, Ria reports.

This leaves driving overland via occupied Ukraine as the only means of getting out of Crimea for anyone with a vehicle.

Image source, REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says “his friend" Russian President Vladimir Putin "wants to continue this humanitarian corridor despite the statement from Moscow this morning”.

He made the comments during a press conference in Istanbul before a visit to Saudi Arabia.

Erdogan says the Turkish foreign minister will have a phone call with his Russian counterpart today. Erdogan himself will call Putin when he is back in Turkey from Saudi Arabia.

“I wish after today’s phone call we can move forward quickly and get back on the road without any interruptions,” Erdogan says.

Image source, Reuters

In 2022, more than half of the wheat grain bought by the United Nations World Food Programme came from Ukraine.

The UN says of all the food products Ukraine has exported under the grain deal:

• 47% have gone to "high-income countries" including Spain, Italy and the Netherlands
• 26% have gone to "upper-middle income countries" such as Turkey and China
• 27% have gone to "low and lower-middle income countries" such as Egypt, Kenya and Sudan

Russia claims it knows western countries are providing intelligence to Ukraine, but says this does not amount to a reason to cut off diplomatic ties.

Asked by reporters about earlier comments from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "We know perfectly well how much information comes from Nato and Washington to Kyiv on a permanent basis."

But he also denied that Russia is considering cutting diplomatic relations with the West, explaining there is a need to keep communications open for the "most acute moments" of crisis.

Misleading bridge blast footage circulating on social mediapublished at 11:31 British Summer Time 17 July 2023

11:31 BST 17 July 2023

Footage allegedly showing an explosion on the Kerch bridge overnight has been circulating on Telegram – a popular social messaging service.

The video is now gaining traction on other social media sites, including Twitter.

However, BBC Verify has established that the footage is not from today.

Image source, Telegram

By carrying out a reverse image search we found that the footage matches a previous incident – an explosion from 17 May that reportedly happened in Kyiv.

A reverse image search is a technique to find out where an image first came from. This tells us if it has appeared elsewhere on the internet before.

Image source, EPA

Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of sunflower, maize, wheat and barley.

When Russia invaded in February 2022, its naval vessels blockaded Ukraine's ports, trapping around 20 million tonnes of grain that sent global food prices soaring.

It also threatened food supplies to a number of Middle Eastern and African countries which rely heavily on Ukrainian grain.

The UN warned that 44 million people in 38 countries were facing "emergency levels of hunger".

Since the grain deal was signed last July, world food prices have decreased by some 20%, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

Read more here.

Image source, .

Russia's anti-terrorism committee has released some images which appear to show investigators examining the damaged Kerch bridge.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has told Russian state news agency RIA that her country has officially notified Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations that her country won't be extending the Black Sea grain export deal.

After RIA's report, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Ukraine grain deal had "de facto ended" hours before it was due to expire.

"The grain deal has ceased. As soon as the conditions are fulfilled, the Russian side will immediately return to the grain deal," he added.

The deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey last July was due to expire today, hours after the attack on Kerch bridge.

On Friday, after speaking to Putin on the phone, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he was optimistic about the prospects of the grain deal being renewed again, noting that "Putin and him were of the same mind on the issue".