A huge explosion on a strategically important bridge linking Russia and the Crimea peninsula brought down sections of road and caused fuel tanker wagons to catch fire on a train early Saturday.
A day after President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 70th birthday, the critical supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine’s south was rocked by the blast which was caused by a truck being “blown up,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
This “resulted in the ignition of seven fuel tanks of a train heading towards the Crimean Peninsula,” the statement said, adding that two sections of road bridge had partially collapsed, but that the arch spanning the Kerch Strait, the waterway through which ships travel between the Black Sea and Azov Sea, was not damaged.
Images of the Kerch bridge posted on social media appeared to show a portion of the roadway had fallen into the water underneath and flames and smoke could be seen rising from rail cars above.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor of Crimea, later said on social media that the road bridge was still intact in one direction, although traffic was suspended while the damage was assessed.
Putin has instructed the government to create a state commission to investigate the incident, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Asked about how long the bridge would take to repair, he said there were “no forecasts yet.”
Without directly claiming responsibility for the explosion Ukrainian officials have been posting gleeful messages to social media about the blast.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said it was just “the beginning” in a post on his Twitter account.
“Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything that is stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,” he wrote.
The Security Service of Ukraine meanwhile, said the bridge “beautifully burns,” in a Telegram post.
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Russian lawmakers voiced their displeasure at the explosion on the bridge that was opened with great fanfare by Putin in May 2018, four years after the Russian annexation of Crimea. Taking the wheel of a truck, Putin led a convoy across it.
“An undisguised terrorist war is being waged against us. Moreover, the long-announced terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge is no longer just a challenge, it is a declaration of war without rules,” said Oleg Morozov, a member of the Russian parliament told the RIA news agency. “If we remain silent in response and do not give an adequate response, then such attacks will multiply,” he added.
In a separate interview with Ria, Senator Alexander Bashkin said Russia “will give an adequate, conscious and, possibly, asymmetric response to this daring blow.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
