Security camera footage circulating online shows a large explosion destroying the bridge, as some vehicles drive across it. As recorded in the video, the impact appears to occur when a truck White.
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“Today at 06:07 (01:07 Brasília time) on the road part of the Crimea bridge (…) there was an explosion of a vehicle bomb, which set fire to seven railway tanks that were heading to Crimea”, declared the Russian Anti-Terrorist Committee.
The agency explained that two road lanes were damaged, but the bridge arch was not.
Fatalities
Three people died in the incident, according to preliminary data from Russia. The victims were passengers in a car that was passing close to the truck at the time of the explosion.
“The bodies of two victims – a man and a woman – have already been removed from the water,” said the Investigative Committee, announcing that it had established the identity of the truck’s owner, a resident of the Krasnodar region, in southern Russia.
Search for responsible
According to Russian authorities, a truck exploded and set fire to seven tanks of a freight train transporting fuel.
The speaker of the Kremlin-backed Crimean regional parliament immediately accused Ukrainealthough the Russian government has not attributed blame to the country at war.
The Ukrainian army and the Kiev special services (SBU) neither confirmed nor denied their involvement in the action, and President Volodymyr Zelensky only joked in a video about the “cloudy” weather on Saturday in Crimea – a likely allusion to the smoke from the explosion.
Tension increases between Russia and Ukraine
Ukrainian authorities had already done bridge attack threats, but did not claim responsibility for Saturday's incident. Quite the opposite, the same afternoon as the incident, the Ukrainian government accused the Russians themselves of being linked to the cause of the fire.
“It is worth noting that the truck that exploded, according to all signs, went up the bridge from the Russian side. It is in Russia that you should look for answers,” said Ukrainian presidential advisor Mikhailo Podoliak.
The act took place one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 70. Putin ordered the creation of a government commission to investigate the facts and initiate official investigation about the cause of the fire.
If Ukraine is behind the fire and explosion at the Crimean bridge, the fact that such crucial infrastructure so far from the front could be damaged by Ukrainian forces would represent a new disadvantage for the Russian side.
The construction, inaugurated in 2018 by Putin, It is a key part of the country's logistics during the war and is particularly hated by Ukrainians, as it symbolizes the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russians 8 years ago.system. (BBC)
Bridge hated by Ukrainians
If Ukraine did not take responsibility for this attack, those responsible multiplied ironic comments, with the Ukrainian post office even announcing that they were preparing a stamp for celebrate the incident.
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“Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine”, tweeted Mikhailo Podoliak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
These reactions led Russian diplomacy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to see this as a sign of the “terrorist nature” of the Ukrainian authorities.
Russia has always maintained that the bridge is safe despite fighting in Ukraine, but in the past threatened Kiev to strike back at Ukraine and its forces attacked this infrastructure or others in Crimea.
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Russian deputy Oleg Morozov, quoted by the Ria Novosti agency, asked this Saturday for an “adequate” response. “Otherwise, these types of terrorist attacks will multiply,” he said.
- Explosion hits Crimean bridge and damages Russian supply route to Ukraine (Washington Post)*
