MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. The Chongar bridge between the Kherson Region and Crimea had been damaged by a Ukrainian strike far worse than it was initially estimated and it will stay closed to traffic for another 15-20 days, the acting governor of the Kherson Region, Vladimir Saldo, has said.

"The bridge is damaged much more seriously than we originally thought. In the next 15-20 days, maybe even more it will be examined for making a decision what is to be done to it. Throughout this period, it will remain unusable," Saldo said on the TV channel Rossiya-24.

On the morning of June 22, Saldo said that Ukrainian forces had hit bridges on the administrative border between the Kherson Region and Crimea near Chongar with Storm Shadow missiles. Vladimir Rogov, the leader of the We Are Together with Russia movement, said one of the two attacked bridges was old and already unusable. Vehicles began to be redirected via alternative routes through the checkpoints Armyansk and Perekop.

Crimea’s Transport Minister Nikolay Lukashenko told TASS that the restoration of the Chongar bridge would begin after the possible risks were minimized. He noted that construction materials for repairs were already being delivered to the site. He added that now the queue at the two remaining checkpoints, Armyansk and Perekop was no more than 2-3 kilometers long. There are resting places and refueling stations not far from the checkpoints on the Crimean side. Security at Armyansk and Perekop have been tightened.