Moscow announced on Saturday that a truck exploded, causing a major fire and damaging the key Kerch Bridge, which was built as Russia’s only land link with annexed Crimea, promising to find the perpetrators immediately without blaming Ukraine.
Russia said the blast ignited seven oil tankers transported by a train and knocked two-lane cars off the giant road and rail structure.
Dramatic social media footage showed the bridge caught fire with pieces falling into the sea.
According to the Russian counter-terrorism committee, “At 06:07 a.m. today (local time), a car bomb exploded on the road traffic side of the Crimean bridge and set fire to seven fuel tanks taken by train to Crimea.” agencies said.
The bridge, which President Vladimir Putin personally opened in 2018, is a vital link for transporting military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. Moscow kept the bridge crossing safe despite the clashes.
A Kremlin spokesman said Putin had ordered the formation of a commission to investigate the explosion, Russian news agencies reported. Russia’s powerful investigative committee launched a forensic investigation into the explosion and sent detectives to the scene.
Image: STRINGER/REUTERS
While authorities in Moscow didn’t go so far as to blame Kiev, a Russia-based Crimean official pointed a finger at “Ukrainian vandals.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, posted on Twitter a photo of a large part of the bridge half-submerged in the sea.
Beginning
“Crimea, bridge, beginning,” he wrote, referring to the annexation of the peninsula in 2014 and the Russian occupation of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022. “Everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine.” . . .
There have been several explosions at Russian military installations on the Crimean peninsula, and if Ukraine is found to be behind the latest explosion, alarms may sound even if the bridge is this far from the front line.
The explosions followed Ukraine’s recent territorial gains in the east and south, undermining the Kremlin’s claim to annex Donetsk, neighboring Lugansk, and the southern regions of Zaporijia and Kherson.
Russian forces said on Friday they had seized land in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, their first claim for new gains since a counterattack against Kiev shook Moscow’s war effort.
The announcement came after Russia’s Orthodox leader said that President Vladimir Putin’s rule was determined by God, congratulated him on his 70th birthday, and the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to rights defenders in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Russian earnings
Separatist forces in the war-torn Donetsk region said they have recaptured a number of villages near the Ukrainian-controlled industrial city of Bakhmut, which has been under Russian bombardment for weeks.
AFP journalists in central Bakhmut heard the sound of heavy artillery and several rocket launch systems near the ruins of a broken bridge over the Bakhmutka River.
“On the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic, with the fire support of the Russian forces, a group of soldiers from the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk liberated Otradovka, Veselaya Dolina and Zaitsevo,” separatist forces said in a statement on social media.
Partly controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists for years, the Donetsk region is a key location for Russian forces that invaded Ukraine in February.
But in recent weeks, Ukrainian troops have been fighting Russian soldiers on the front lines in the south and east, including parts of Donetsk.
Ukraine regained its lands
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that his forces had recaptured nearly 2,500 square kilometers in a counteroffensive that began late last month.
“Our soldiers have liberated an area of 776 square kilometers in the east of our country just this week, and 29 settlements, including 6 in the Lugansk region,” he said.
However, Ukraine continues to suffer serious losses. The secretary of the local council announced on Friday that 14 people were killed when Russian missiles hit the industrial city of Zaporijia on Thursday.
Last week, 30 people were killed when a convoy of civilian vehicles in the Zaporizhia region was bombed in an attack that Kiev blamed on Moscow.
A day after the EU imposed new sanctions on Moscow, Zelensky urged Brussels to step up the pressure on the energy sector, forcing Russia to punish in other areas.
The International Monetary Fund also announced on Friday that it will provide $1.3 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine.
In the more than seven months since Russia’s attack, Putin has made thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons.
US President Joe Biden warned on Thursday that the world is facing “Armageddon” as Putin can use his atomic arsenal.
But on Friday, the White House sounded alarm, saying the president’s comments did not reflect the new intelligence.
(With information from AFP)
source: Noticias
