The Kerch Strait bridge, a Vladimir Putin-commissioned link between Russia and Crimea, has become a flashpoint of the war in Ukraine, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of launching an attack that damaged it this week, said to have killed two people.
Russian authorities claimed that two Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicles (USV) targeted the bridge just after 3 a.m. local time on Monday, with Russian President Putin labeling the incident a "terrorist attack" by Ukraine.
Kyiv typically doesn't claim responsibility for attacks on Crimea or inside Russian territory, but Mykhailo Fedorov—Ukraine's minister for digital transformation—indicated drones from his country were behind the early-morning explosions.
It's the second time in less than a year that the bridge has been damaged after it was first targeted in October 2022. As news continued to develop, amateur footage seemingly taken of the connecting road showed huge plumes of smoke rushing into the air as passers-by watched.
The Claim
A tweet by Ukraine Front Lines, posted on July 17, 2023, viewed 64,000 times, included a video of what appeared to be a bridge (which looked like the Kerch Strait) on fire.
An accompanying tweet stated: "Kerch bridge, also known as Crimean is in smoke. One span of the bridge collapsedю It's going to be difficult for Russia to carry the suit without a handle that is Crimea. War zone on one side and no bridge on another."
The Facts
Russian Telegram channels have published photos and videos that appear to show the aftermath of explosions on the Kerch Strait Bridge. Several Telegram channels reported explosions in the early hours of Monday morning, saying that a span of the Kerch bridge collapsed.
Putin has threatened reprisals for the move, despite claiming there was no military significance to hitting the bridge.
"There will be a response from Russia to the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge. The Ministry of Defense is preparing relevant proposals," Putin said during a meeting with officials, according to CNN.
"I would like to repeat that what happened is another terrorist act of the (Kyiv) regime."
The video shared on Twitter appears to show plumes of smoke coming from what looks like the bridge. However, the warping of the bridge isn't visible in the film and, unlike many of the other videos and footage from the incident, was shot in daylight.
As it turns out, the video was filmed before the report of the collapse. Reverse image searches of thumbnails from the video show that the film was originally shot in May 2023, and was posted on multiple Ukrainian news sites.
The smoke coming from the bridge was reported by Newsweek at the time. Russian officials blamed the smoke rising from the bridge on "exercises".
"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," Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian politician acting as head of the peninsula, said in a statement on his Telegram channel.
In any case, the film that was shared here was not related to the bridge collapse on the Kerch Strait this week.
The previous attack on the Kerch Strait bridge in October 2022 was also surrounded with misinformation. Video emerged of the bridge being hit by missiles, which was shared on Twitter when, in fact, they were crudely made video edits posted on YouTube.
The Ruling
False.
Although the video on Twitter is of the Kerch Strait bridge, a section of which collapsed early on Monday, it was not footage taken from the incident this week.
The footage shared on Twitter was filmed in May 2023. Russian officials at the time blamed the smoke on an "exercise".
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
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