Russians fled Crimea after hitting a bridge

Thousands of residents and tourists are in a hurry to leave Crimea after traffic stopped on the Kerch Bridge, which was damaged Monday night by an alleged strike by Ukrainian ground drones.

While the authorities assess the date of reconstruction of the bridge and offer drivers to use the ferry crossing, gigantic traffic jams are forming on the available exits from Crimea.

Traffic jams of cars leaving the Crimea towards Melitopol in the Russian-annexed Kherson region reached 5 km, RIA Novosti reports.

According to the National Association of the Hotel Industry, at the moment there are at least 50,000 tourists on the peninsula, and most of them enter in private cars.

Those who will be leaving Crimea via the Zaporizhzhia region should be aware of the restrictions in place in the region, including the curfew from 10:30 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., Andrei Kozenko, deputy head of the regional government for economic affairs, told TASS. It will be possible to travel around the clock through the DPRK to Crimea and back, the curfew will be temporarily lifted, Denis Pushylin, acting head of the occupation administration, said.

The date of reconstruction of the bridge will be known only in the late afternoon, said Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who was instructed by President Vladimir Putin to organize restoration work at the site of the accident.

He noted that the railway part of the bridge is still operational, and ferry service will be launched soon. So far, however, only trucks are transported by ferries, the Crimean Ministry of Transport reported.

According to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAC), the Crimean bridge was attacked on Monday evening by two Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicles. As a result, two residents of the Belgorod region died, a child was injured.