A new setback for Russia in the Ukraine conflict? This Saturday morning a large fire broke out on the Kerch bridge, which connects the Ukrainian Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014 and Russian territory. It was caused by a car bomb explosion, the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee announced.
A fire caused by an explosion.
“Today at 06:07 (local time) on the road part of the Crimean bridge (…) a car bomb exploded, which caused the fire of seven railway tanks that were going to Crimea,” he said this Saturday by the morning the Russian Anti National. -Terrorism Committee.
According to this same source, two lanes of the highway are damaged, but the arch of the bridge is not affected. The Committee specified that the explosion occurred after “the explosion of a truck”.
In the footage, the source of the explosion actually appears to be a white truck driving along the bridge at night with other vehicles. The explosion damaged both the highway and the railway. We also see part of the collapsed bridge structure in the water.
A criminal investigation opened by Russia
The Kremlin spokesman told the Ria Novosti news agency that Vladimir Putin had ordered the formation of a government commission to clarify the facts. Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s top investigative body, also said it had “opened a criminal investigation” to identify “all people connected to this crime.”
· No official claims
If no one has officially claimed responsibility for this attack, the head of the Crimean assembly, the regional parliament installed by Russia, Vladimir Konstantinov denounced a coup by “Ukrainian hooligans”.
If Ukraine is the cause of the fire and explosion on the bridge, it would be a snub to Russia that such crucial infrastructure so far from the front could be damaged by Ukrainian forces. Russia has had a series of military setbacks since early September, forcing its troops to withdraw in both the northeast and the south of the country.
Ukraine did not comment, but the head of the Ukrainian presidential cabinet Andriy Yermak posted on Twitter a photo of the burning bridge, under which he wrote: “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning”; adding that “everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.”
Since the announcement of the fire, Ukrainian officials and many Internet users have multiplied mocking and ironic comments about the explosion, however without claiming responsibility.
For example, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry compared this attack to the one that sank the Moskva cruiser in the Black Sea last April, another “symbol of Russian power in Ukrainian Crimea.”
“What else awaits you Ruskofs?” he insultingly wrote on Twitter.
Similarly, the Ukrainian post office announced this Saturday morning that it was preparing to print stamps with the image of the “Crimean bridge, or, more precisely, what remains of it”. This is enough to upset Russia, which has criticized the Ukrainian reaction to the blast, which it says is a sign of the “terrorist nature” of Ukraine.
the fire lit this road and rail bridge forced to stop rail and road traffic. However, it is essential for transporting people and goods to the peninsula, but it is also to the troops deployed in Ukraine for the transportation of military equipment of the Russian army.In fact, the bridge crosses the Kerch Strait that connects Crimea with Russia.
It was built at great cost by order of Vladimir Putin as a true symbol of the annexation of the peninsula in 2014. This key infrastructure was inaugurated in 2018. Russia has always maintained that the bridge does not pose any risk despite the fighting in Ukraine, but has threatened Kyiv with reprisals if the forces Ukrainians do. attack this bridge or other infrastructure in Crimea.
Source: BFM TV
