Bridge linking Ukraine’s mainland to Crimea ‘damaged in explosion’

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via video conference in Moscow, Russia (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

An explosion has damaged a bridge that is one of the few links between Crimea and Ukraine’s mainland, Russia-backed officials said, as the early stages of a Ukrainian counter-offensive unfold.

Russian forces in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, use the Chongar bridge to reach southern Ukraine’s Kherson province.