The Daily Populous Tuesday June 3rd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by abcnews.go.com and submitted by Tamarind-Endnote

This image taken from a Ukraine Security Service (SBU) handout shows alleged damage to the Kerch Strait Bridge following an explosion there on June 03, 2025.

LONDON -- The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Tuesday claimed to have conducted a new attack on Russia's Kerch Strait Bridge -- which links occupied Crimea to Russia's Krasnodar Krai region -- two days after the service's dramatic drone strikes on Russia's strategic bomber fleet.

The SBU posted a video, photograph and statement to its official Telegram channel detailing the operation, which it said "lasted several months."

"SBU agents mined the supports of this illegal facility," the statement read. "And today, without any civilian casualties, at 4:44 am the first explosive device was activated."

Handout photo released by the Ukrainian Security Service on June 3, 2025, allegedly shows the explosion of the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea with Russia following a special operation carried out by the Ukrainian Security Service. Ukrainian Security Service/AFP via Getty Images

"The underwater supports of the piers were severely damaged at the bottom level -- 1,100 kg of explosives in TNT equivalent contributed to this," the SBU said. "In fact, the bridge is in a state of emergency."

SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk said in a statement, "Previously, we hit the Crimean Bridge twice in 2022 and 2023. So, today we continued this tradition under water."

The official account for the bridge said the structure was "temporarily closed" after the explosion. The Russian Defense Ministry and government are yet to comment.

This image taken from a Ukraine Security Service (SBU) handout shows alleged damage to the Kerch Strait Bridge following an explosion there on June 03, 2025. Anadolu via Getty Images

Meanwhile, at least eight people were killed and 50 were injured across Ukraine overnight into Tuesday as Russia continued long-range attacks on multiple cities, local officials said.

Ukraine's air force said it recorded 112 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, 75 of which were either shot down or neutralized in flight. The air force reported impacts in 11 locations across the country.

Most of the reported deaths were clustered in two northeastern regions of Ukraine, close to the front lines.

Four people were killed and 28 were injured by a Russian cluster rocket attack on the city of Sumy, local authorities said. At least five rockets landed in open areas of the city center, the Sumy Regional Administration said, including along a busy road filled with cars and morning commuters.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that the "savage strike" was a "fully deliberate attack on civilians."

Firefighters extinguish cars hit by a Russian military strike in Sumy, Ukraine, on June 3, 2025. State Emergency Service Of Ukrai/via Reuters

Another three people were killed and six were injured in the Kharkiv region as a result of Russian shelling, the regional military administration said.

One person was killed and 13 were injured by Russian fire in the southern Kherson region, said Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the local military administration.

Five people were also injured by strikes in the northern city of Chernihiv and five others in the southern Black Sea coast city of Odesa, according to officials there.

In his Tuesday morning message, Zelenskyy said the ongoing Russian attacks indicate that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no genuine interest in peace, despite the Kremlin's participation in ongoing U.S.-brokered talks to end its 3-year-old invasion.

Ukrainian and Russian representatives met in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday for a second round of direct negotiations, the two sides having previously gathered in the city for the first round in May. That meeting allowed the first face-to-face peace talks between the two sides since the spring of 2022.

Ukraine is demanding a full 30-day ceasefire during which time peace negotiations can take place. Zelenskyy also said ahead of Monday's meeting that Kyiv wants the release of all prisoners and the return of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia during Moscow's invasion. Zelenskyy also suggested direct future talks with Putin.

In a "peace memorandum" delivered to Ukraine's negotiating team on Monday, Russia set out similar maximalist demands to those issued during the opening days of its spring 2022 invasion.

Among the demands are a Ukrainian withdrawal from all four Ukrainian regions that Russia claims -- Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk -- including areas that Russian troops do not occupy. Moscow said it would accept a ceasefire if Ukraine agreed to stop receiving foreign weapons and end mobilization -- two demands Kyiv has rejected.

Moscow is also demanding limitations on the size of Ukraine's armed forces, a permanent block on Ukrainian NATO accession, international recognition of Russian control over the areas of Ukraine it claims, the lifting of all sanctions and Ukraine to abandon its demand for war reparations to be paid by Moscow.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday that there was no significant breakthrough during Monday's talks. "It would be wrong to expect any immediate decisions or breakthroughs here," he said. "But work is ongoing."

A meeting between Putin, Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump "is unlikely in the near future," Peskov continued.

Dmitry Medvedev -- the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country's Security Council -- wrote on Telegram that the talks "are not meant to achieve a compromise peace based on some imaginary and unrealistic conditions invented by others, but rather to secure our swift victory and the complete destruction" of Zelenskyy's government.

Zelenskyy on Tuesday said it is "obvious: without global pressure -- without decisive actions from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who has the power -- Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire."

"Not a single day goes by without Russia striking Ukrainian cities and villages," the president continued.

"Every day, we lose our people to Russian terror. Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defense. I am grateful to everyone around the world who is promoting exactly this agenda: sanctions for aggression and the killing of people, and assistance in defending the lives of Ukrainians."

Firefighters work at a terminal of a private postal company the site of a Russian drone strike in Odesa, Ukraine, on June 3, 2025. State Emergency Service Of Ukrai/via Reuters

Ukraine continued its own long-range strike campaign into Russia overnight. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces downed eight Ukrainian drones on Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Monday's Istanbul talks were held despite Ukraine's audacious covert operation targeting Russian strategic bombers on Sunday, in which drones concealed in the back of trucks attacked at least five airfields deep inside Russian territory.

Zelenskyy told ABC News' Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz that the attack was a "strategic operation" that "is definitely reducing Russia's potential, and demonstrates that Ukraine is working on certain steps."

"Unless they will stop, we will continue," he said.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the Trump administration's involvement, Zelenskyy told Raddatz, "We are looking for very strong steps on the part of President Trump to support the sanctions and to force President Putin to stop this war, or at least proceed with the first stage of putting an end to this war -- that is the ceasefire."

ABC News' Will Gretsky, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

xdr01 on June 3rd, 2025 at 13:39 UTC »

The hits keep coming, great work when Trump isnt involved.

erikaspausen on June 3rd, 2025 at 13:22 UTC »

This bridge is an important supply line for Russia. Getting rid of it would be huge.

MikeOKurias on June 3rd, 2025 at 12:59 UTC »

The bridge the Russians built after they stole land from Ukraine?

Sounds more like they were just getting rid of their shitty neighbor's stuff on their property.