Several hours after a massive explosion took down portions of the roadway, light traffic has resumed on Russia’s only bridge to Crimea.
According to authorities, three individuals were killed in the explosion on Europe’s longest bridge, a symbol of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, According to Russian officials, the victims were in a neighboring vehicle when a truck exploded.
The railway portion of the bridge, where oil tanks caught fire, appears to have reopened as well, Saturday evening, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a video purporting to show automobiles crossing the bridge.
The rail and road crossing was inaugurated in 2018 and is a vital supply route for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, did not directly attribute blame to Ukraine, but he wrote: “Crimea, the beginning, is the bridge.
“Everything unlawful must be eradicated, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, and everything occupied by Russia must be evicted.”
The Ukrainian defense ministry compared the bridge explosion to the April sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva, It tweeted, “Two infamous emblems of Russian power in the Ukrainian Crimea have fallen.” What comes after this?
The Ukrainian government just tweeted, “Sick burn.”
The foreign ministry of Russia stated, “The Kiev regime’s reaction to the destruction of civilian infrastructure demonstrates its terrorist nature.”
According to the director general of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the massive nuclear facility in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, which is occupied by Russian forces, has lost all external power and is dependent on emergency diesel generators to provide the electricity required for reactor cooling.
Russia has named General Sergey Surovikin of the Air Force as the new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, According to Russian media, Ukrainian soldiers shelled a printing press in the separatist-held city of Donetsk, The significance and symbolism of seeing the bridge, which was opened by President Putin, on fire are difficult to overstate.
Russia has utilised the bridge to carry military equipment, ammunition, and soldiers from Russia to the battlefields in southern Ukraine, As a result, Ukrainian officials deemed the peninsula a legitimate target, vowing to reclaim it.
Any attack on Crimea, where the Russian army has a huge presence, will be viewed as yet another massive embarrassment for the Kremlin, Ukrainians dislike the bridge especially. One day after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 70th birthday, Ukrainian social media erupted in jubilation over the discovery of the fire.
Local officials in Crimea established a ferry service between the Russian mainland and the peninsula for heavier vehicles unable to traverse the partially rebuilt bridge, The Russian Anti-Terrorism Committee stated: “Today at 06:07 Moscow time [03:07 GMT], a freight vehicle on the highway portion of the Crimean bridge on the side of the Taman peninsula exploded, igniting seven gasoline tanks of a train headed towards the Crimean peninsula.
Two portions of the highway bridge partially collapsed, Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament, attributed the explosion on “Ukrainian vandals who have finally reached the Crimean bridge with bloody hands.”
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated that Vladimir Putin was briefed on the “emergency” on the bridge and requested a government investigation. Also underway is a criminal inquiry.
The 19km (12-mile) bridge spanning the Kerch Strait, which cost £2.7bn to build, was inaugurated four years after Moscow illegally grabbed Crime, It was dubbed “the construction of the century” by Russian media. Previously, Russian officials asserted that the country was well safeguarded against air, land, and sea threats.
The passage is over 100 miles from Ukrainian-controlled territory. It was informed by an expert on explosives that the origin of the fire was likely not a missile.
“The absence of evident blast/fragmentation damage on the road surface shows that an air-delivered weapon was not utilised,” he stated.
He stated that “a well-planned onslaught from below” was a potential explanation,”I assume explosives on the road bridge and train deck were detonated almost simultaneously using a coded radio instruction,” he continued.
In this confrontation, Kiev holds the upper hand. The army has recaptured vast swaths of terrain, compelling Russian troops to surrender long-held strongholds.
In response to the losses, Moscow has initiated a disorderly military mobilisation, which has prompted rare anti-war demonstrations in Russia and a massive emigration of males of military age, Presenters and studio guests on Russian television talk shows have expressed growing pessimism about the current state of affairs.
If the attack were conducted by Ukraine, it would not be the first time the country has targeted Crimea, Last month, Ukraine claimed credit for a series of air attacks on Crimea, including an assault on the Russian military installation at Saky.
