UPDATE 2 - Russia blames Ukraine for Crimea’s Kerch Bridge blast, with US, UK intelligence help

UPDATES WITH STATEMENTS FROM RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN, UKRAINE; CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Moscow claimed on Monday that Ukraine, with the direct assistance of US and UK intelligence agencies, carried out an explosion at the Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, killing a couple and injuring their daughter.

“Today's attack on the Crimean bridge was carried out by the Kyiv regime … Decisions are made by Ukrainian officials and the military with the direct participation of American and British intelligence agencies and politicians,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Telegram.

Russian officials were initially unclear about the situation, as two senior officials confirmed the death of a man and his wife, as well as injuries to their daughter, but called it an "emergency" at the Kerch Bridge.

Reversing these officials' earlier statements, Russia's Investigative Committee announced that the incident was a "terrorist attack" and that a criminal investigation has been launched.

Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, had announced on Telegram that traffic at the Kerch Bridge had stopped and that an “emergency” had occurred in the area.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov also stated on Telegram that the incident occurred due to an "emergency" situation.

"This morning, we all started with information about the emergency that happened on the Crimean bridge. What information is available at the moment: a girl was moderately injured … The hardest thing is that her parents died, dad and mom," he stated.

The girl is under the supervision of doctors and will be immediately transported to the Belgorod region once doctors permit it, Gladkov added.

In an early morning statement, Vladimir Konstantinov, the head of the pro-Russian State Council of Crimea, claimed on Telegram that Ukraine "attacked" the Kerch Bridge.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian media outlets such as Ukrinform and RBK-Ukraine reported, citing "unknown" sources in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), that the SBU and the Ukrainian Navy were behind the Kerch Bridge explosion.

"Any illegal structures used to deliver Russian instruments of mass murder are necessarily short-lived... regardless of the reasons for the destruction," MykhailoPodolyak, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said separately on Twitter.

The Ukrainian government has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the blast, and independent verification of Russia's claims is difficult due to the ongoing war.