Reports that China and Russia are planning to build an underwater channel beneath the Kerch Strait to create a safer alternative to the Crimean Bridge are unfounded, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, Azernews reports, citing TASS.

"The press article [making such claims] is unfounded and I cannot comment on it," he said at a briefing.

The Washington Post wrote earlier that Moscow and Beijing had purportedly discussed plans to build an underwater tunnel beneath the Kerch Strait, which would be protected from Ukrainian attacks. Crimea Head Sergey Aksyonov slammed the report as disinformation, while Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also refuted the report.