‘These things used to shock us’ The Kerch bridge explosion through the eyes of Crimea residents and Russian tourists

Early on the morning of July 17, an explosion hit the Crimean Bridge (also known as the Kerch Bridge), killing a married couple from Russia’s Belgorod region and injuring their 14-year-old daughter. Moscow blamed the “Kyiv regime” for the attack, and the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a terrorism case concerning the blast. Bereg, an independent journalists’ cooperative, spoke with tourists who were on or near the bridge at the moment of the explosion and asked local residents what they think about the attack. With Bereg’s permission, Meduza has translated their responses.

Ksenia

32 years old, tourist from Nizhny Novogorod

We were on vacation at a health resort [in Yalta, about 280 kilometers, or 180 miles, from the Crimean Bridge]. Some people heard “booms” in the night; I woke up [from the sounds], because I sleep with my child and I’m a light sleeper. On Saturday [July 22], we’re heading back home [by car]. We’re still looking at alternative routes since we can’t take the bridge.

We’re traveling with a small child with special needs, and we’re worried about him. We initially came [to Crimea] because of him and his grandmother, because we were given a voucher for a rehabilitation trip. We’re worried because we make a lot of stops so that our child can walk around and get something to eat, and now it’s going to be scary, because you can’t stop much [while traveling through the annexed territories]. And the situation, the fact that people died and a little girl was orphaned, is just horrible all around. How is she going to live without her parents?

Anatoly

37 years old, Kerch resident

The explosion happened at night while I was sleeping. Unlike last time, I didn’t hear anything, which was a surprise. The explosion on October 8, 2022, woke everybody up — it was just eight kilometers (5 miles) from my house.

I was born in Kerch and I’ve lived here my entire life. I don’t plan on leaving; I don’t see a need to.

Olga

43 years old, tourist from Russia’s Smolensk region

Right now, I’m temporarily living [near Kerch]. I heard two explosions, but I didn’t see [anything] except that the lights went off on part of the bridge, and that was it.

It doesn’t seem like anything special to me — there’s a war going on. Nobody’s panicking.

Irina

42 years old, tourist from St. Petersburg

At the moment when the first blast hit, we had just gone through inspection [on the road from the Krasnodar region] and planned to go on [towards Crimea, when we heard the explosion]. We were told that air defenses had been activated and that the lights on the bridge had been turned off, but the “boom” sounded really powerful.

We started going over the bridge and nobody from the security services stopped us. Vehicles came towards us from the other direction and flashed their lights, telling us to turn around immediately. Nobody knew what was going on, but the people coming from the other side [from Crimea] said the bridge had been damaged. We returned to the inspection area — and that’s when the second explosion hit. To me, it sounded stronger than the first. People started panicking a bit; the cars started turning back [towards the Krasnodar region].

I think we stayed alive thanks to our strong guardian angels. Before we got to the bridge, our navigation system stopped working, and we took a wrong turn, which took enough time that we ultimately made it out alive. After all, the people that died had gone through inspection right before us.

Tatyana

48 years old, Yalta resident

Since the events of 2022 — the explosions in Novofedorivka and Dzhankoy, and [the last Crimean Bridge explosion on] October 8 — we’ve been less concerned [about incidents like this]. These things used to shock us; we would all get scared and start thinking about what [to do] next. Now we’ve kind of calmed down.

Of course we locals are sad that this is ruining the vacation season. We’ll have to get through the winter, and basically everybody here makes their money in the summer. But the most terrible part is that people died. But life goes on.

We have concerns [about the situation in Crimea], of course — in practically every apartment building, there are signs announcing the nearest shelter in case of any unforeseen incidents. That’s pretty scary. [It’s also scary that] there are trenches by the sea in Yevpatoria. But on the other hand, those things are there for our security. So we’ve started to feel more calm about the situation; we’ve gotten used to it.

Quite a lot [of Crimea residents] have left. And those who’ve stayed behind don’t want to leave. I have no desire to leave, and neither do my loved ones. I decided for myself that even if it’s very dangerous, the most we would do would be to send our kids away, but we’re going to stay in our homeland. We’ll help one another.

Margarita

39 years old, Sevastopol resident

I learned about everything from local Telegram channels; they were the first to write about it. When I read that a family had died and a girl had been injured, I burst into tears. I feel awful for the child — she’s just 14 years old, and she lost her parents in a single moment. And they’ll repair the bridge — [Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat] Khusnullin is smart, and they have the money. But the lives, unfortunately, can’t be brought back. It’s a tragedy, of course.

It seems bad to say that we’ve gotten used to this [since the start of the full-scale war], but we’re ready for anything, and we have no desire to move away. You just start thinking about the logistics: my daughter works in Moscow, and we’re thinking about the best way to travel — by train, through the new regions, or by ferry. And right now, it’s not safe anywhere — it’s even reached Moscow.

But I’m still confident that things in Crimea are calmer than in Russia’s other regions, because we really do have serious protection here. I trust it. Today I was watching people from the mainland, visitors, who came by car, and they weren’t panicking. Their journeys [home] will probably just be more complicated. A lot of people are afraid to travel through the new [annexed] regions because it’s not safe there at all. There was even a strike on the Chonhar bridge.

The governor (Editor’s note: This information came not from Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, but from the Russian-installed acting industrial policy minister on the peninsula, Yelena Elekchyan) reassured us, saying that we have reserves of fuel and food. Most of our main supplies [come] over the land corridor, so I don’t think it will impact us. Unless profiteers start taking advantage of the situation and raise prices, like people love to do here both for rent and for items in general. But otherwise, everything is fine. After the first explosion [on the bridge] in 2022, there were long lines at the gas stations, people panicked. But this time everything’s calm.

Alisa

27 years old, Simferopol resident (name changed)

I have a lot of emotions, of course. As for my personal worries, I’m upset and I’m frustrated that this is happening “again.” Was it really too hard for us to take measures after the first time this happened, [in October 2022]? People were languishing in line for seven hours at a time because of the inspections at the bridge, only for them to let the danger in from a different direction.

I also have a lot of feelings related to my work. I work in the tourism industry, and for us, this whole situation is just a total shitshow (sorry for the language). Tourists might cancel their trips, and [Crimeans] who need to go to the mainland for work will have to go anyways, regardless of the risks.

Everyone who could already send their children somewhere has done it. Some have sent them to Moscow, but more often people send them abroad. [I thought] about moving to a different part [of Russia], though that would only be if I had an office job. But quitting my current job to start from scratch in a new place — that sounds awful. And it’s hard to leave your family. Last spring and for the first part of summer, I lived in Czechia. But I couldn’t take it, so I came back.