On Saturday, a truck bomb caused a fire and the collapse of part of a bridge connecting mainland Russia with the annexed Crimean peninsula, Russian authorities said. It is a key supply artery in Moscow’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine.
The president of the Kremlin-backed Crimean parliament immediately blamed Ukraine, although the Russian government did not go along with the criticism. Ukrainian authorities had repeatedly threatened to attack the infrastructure and some celebrated the attack, but Kiev did not claim responsibility.
News in development
Ukraine celebrated the destruction of the Russia-Crimea bridge
A helicopter throws water to put out the fires caused by the explosion that blew up the Russia-Crimea bridge. REUTERS / Stringer
Ukraine today celebrated the damage to a part of the Crimean bridge due to a fuel tank fire this morning, but without at any time clarifying an alleged responsibility, according to statements gathered by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported today in its Telegram report of the “destruction” of the bridge: “This morning on the Crimean bridge. The fuel tanks are on fire. Part of the roadway has also been destroyed! Everything will be Ukraine! “, reads the message from the Ukrainian air force, which is accompanied by images of the destroyed bridge.
Mikhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky, said: “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied from Russia he must be expelled. “
Russia estimates the damage to the Crimean bridge as high as $ 8 million
The Union of Insurers of Russia today estimated the damage caused to the Crimean bridge by an explosion between 200 and 500 million rubles (3.2 million and 8.1 million dollars), according to the RIA Nóvosti agency.
“The Russian Union of Insurers calculates the damage resulting from the emergency at the Crimean bridge between 200 and 500 million rubles,” he said.
This organization does not currently have information on current insurance contracts for the infrastructure, which at the time cost about $ 3,500 million and was built by the company of businessman Arkadi Rottenberg, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The bridge is a symbol of the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 2014. In May 2018 Putin inaugurated the automobile section of the Crimean bridge over the Kerch Strait, the longest in Europe with its 19 kilometers, with the aim of breaking the isolation of the peninsula.
Thus the bridge was destroyed
Ukraine is behind the explosion on the Crimean bridge, media say
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is behind the explosion on the Crimean bridge this morning, according to an agency source quoted by the Ukrainian digital newspaper Ukrainska Pravda.
The newspaper acknowledges that the secret service itself has not released an official statement about its involvement in these events.
The news agency Ukrinform cites an SBU post on Telegram in which it admits, along with information provided by sources of the security services, the involvement of the Ukrainian security services in the explosion and fire of the bridge.
“The bridge burns beautifully at dawn. A nightingale meets the SBU in Crimea,” says the SBU post, quoted by Ukrainska Pravda, paraphrasing the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.
Ukraine today celebrated the damage caused to part of the Crimean bridge by a fuel tank fire this morning, according to statements gathered by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
“Ukrainian hooliganism” behind the explosion of the bridge, says Crimea
Crimean authorities today blamed “Ukrainian vandalism” for the explosion on the bridge connecting the occupied Ukrainian peninsula with Russia, causing damage to infrastructure.
“The Ukrainian vandals managed to get to the Crimean bridge with their bloody hands. Now they have something to be proud of: for 23 years of management they could not build anything worthy of attention in the Crimea, but they managed to damage the bridge. Russian, “said the president of the State Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov.
“This is the whole essence of the Kiev regime and the Ukrainian state. Death and destruction are the only thing they get,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Source: Clarin
