Explosion in Crimea damaged bridge considered important to Russian war effort

by Max Hunder and Jonathan Landy

Kyiv (Reuters) – A powerful explosion from a truck severely damaged the road and rail bridge connecting Russia to Crimea on Saturday, hitting a prestigious symbol of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula and an important supply route to fight Russian forces. Southern Ukraine.

The explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait, which Russia did not immediately blame, sparked messages of satisfaction from the Ukrainian authorities, but did not take direct responsibility for the incident.

Russian officials said three people who were in a car that passed near the truck that caused the explosion were killed.

Russia captured Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and the 19-kilometer Kerch Bridge that connects Russia’s transport network was unveiled to great fanfare four years later by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was driving a construction truck over it.

The bridge now represents an important artery for the Russian forces controlling most of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, and for the port of Sevastopol, where the governor told local residents “Calm down. panic”.

It remains unclear whether the blast was a deliberate attack, but the damage to this infrastructure came at a time when Russia had suffered multiple battlefield defeats, and may further obscure the Kremlin’s messages of reassurance to the public that the war of effort is progressing as planned.

The explosion also occurred the day after Putin’s 70th birthday.

The head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, posted on social media a video of the burning bridge, in which Marilyn Monroe sings the song “Happy Birthday, Mr. President”.

Since the start of the war on February 24, Ukrainian officials have regularly referred to the Ukrainian desire to demolish the bridge, which is seen as a symbol of the Russian invasion of Crimea. Ukraine’s postal service said it will issue a special stamp to commemorate the explosion on Saturday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces in southern Ukraine “can be fully supplied” via existing land and sea routes, and the Transport Ministry said rail traffic on the bridge would resume on Saturday.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Kiev’s response to the destruction of civilian infrastructure was “a testament to its terrorist nature”.

Russia’s National Counter-Terrorism Committee said a cargo truck exploded on the bridge road at 6:07 a.m. (0000 GMT) and caused seven tank cars to catch fire as a train headed to the peninsula above the bridge.

He said the two spans of the highway bridge had partially collapsed, but the arch spanning the Kerch Strait, the waterway through which ships traveled between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov, was undamaged.

Footage released by Russia’s Investigative Committee showed that half of the bridge road was destroyed and the other half was still stuck but cracked. Other images taken from afar showed thick smoke rising from part of the bridge.

An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted that the incident was only “the beginning”, but did not go so far as to say that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the explosion.

“Everything illegal should be destroyed, everything stolen should be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia should be deported,” said Mykhailo Podolyak.

This Saturday, hundreds of people hoping to leave the peninsula were diverted to the ferry port in the city of Kerch, but realized that strong winds were blocking any crossings.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy director of the Russian Kherson region, said the bridge incident “will not affect the army supplies much”.

However, there will be logistical problems for Crimea,” he said.

Mykola Bielieskov of the Ukrainian Institute for Strategic Studies, who advises the presidency in Kiev, said the Kerch Bridge is irreplaceable for the Russian occupation forces and that if it were cut, “the entire southern Russian front would collapse quickly and easily”.

The explosion on the bridge connecting Crimea to Russian territory has put ambassadors, negotiators and governments on high alert. Sources in Moscow said: UOL The point of view of many observers and even intelligence services in the face of the attack is that President Vladimir Putin will have to react.

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