1 of 5 | A still image taken from a handout video made available by Russia's Investigative Committee shows Russian officers examining the damage on the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia on Monday. Image courtesy of Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation/EPA-EFE
July 17 (UPI) -- A mother and father from Russia's Belgorod region were killed and their daughter was injured Monday morning on the strategically important Crimean Bridge, said Russian officials, who accused Ukraine of attacking the structure and vowed to retaliate.
The source of the explosion, which killed two people and halted traffic on the Crimean Bridge that connects Russia with Ukraine's Kremlin-occupied Crimean Peninsula, was not immediately clear. But Russia has blamed Kyiv for it.
The Kremlin's ministry of foreign affairs said the bridge was attacked by two Ukrainian waterborne drones.
Vladimir Konstantinov, chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea, said it was carried out by "the terrorist regime in Kyiv."
"Our secretary of defense has promised strikes against criminal decision-making centers," he said in a statement on Telegram.
Russia's Ministry of Transportation reported the bridge was damaged and that vehicle traffic had come to a halt, but railway traffic was still able to function.
The bridge, also known as the Kerch Strait Bridge, was opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, connecting Russia's Krasnodar region with the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed four years prior.
Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the apparent attack, but Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Twitter that "all illegal structures used to deliver Russian instruments of mass murder are necessarily short-lived ... regardless of the reasons for the destruction."
The parents who died were identified by Belgorod Oblast Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov, who said on Telegram they were from Novooskolsky district and that the girl was moderately injured.
The foreign ministry named the victims as Alexey and Natalya Kulik and their 14-year-old daughter, Angelina.
"The damage to the Crimean Bridge caused by the terrorist attack will be repaired shortly," the ministry said in a statement on Telegram. "All attempts to disrupt the transport link to the peninsula and tear Crimea from the rest of Russia are invariably futile."
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the apparent attack and ordered a comprehensive assessment of the damage to begin repairs as quickly as possible, according to a statement from his office.
Sergey Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of Crimea, instructed residents of the peninsula to avoid travel on the bridge.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has also launched a "criminal case of a terrorist attack" on the incident.
The ministry said in a statement that the family was attempting to cross the bridge in a vehicle when the incident occurred.
In Washington, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters during a press conference that the Biden administration is "not in a position" to attribute the attack at this point and that they don't "take it upon ourselves to determine legitimacy or illegitimacy of targets that the Ukrainians hit.
'"They're fighting for their own country. Crimea is Ukraine," he said. "And we don't tell them what is or what isn't legally a legitimate target. They determine their targets for themselves."
In October, three people died in an explosion on the bridge that severely damaged the structure.
