A powerful explosion caused by a truck bomb hit the vehicular and railway bridge that connects Russia with the Kerch Strait in the Crimean Peninsula on Saturday morning. Two parts of the vehicle road collapsed into the water, while on the railroad, a fire broke out in the wagons carrying fuel, which spread along the road.
The state media in Russia reported that a trapped vehicle caused the explosion and announced that 3 people were killed in the damage to the bridge, the driver of the inferno truck, and a man and a woman who were traveling in a vehicle near the explosion. The Speaker of the Crimean Parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, officially placed responsibility for the incident on the Ukrainians, but neither Ukraine nor NATO issued an official response to the incident.
It is the longest bridge in Europe, 19 kilometers, and the cost of its construction was 3.6 billion dollars. It is the main artery for delivering supplies to the Russian military in southern Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced the annexation of four districts. In addition, it is the only land connection between the Crimean Peninsula and Russia and traffic on it was stopped for 10 hours until the fire was extinguished. According to the Russian authorities in Crimea, traffic on the axis has returned in parts that were not damaged, but under strict inspection by the army.
Firefighting operations at the Crimean Bridge after the explosion / Photo: Reuters, Stringer
For both the Russians and the Ukrainians, this is a representation of the annexation of the Crimean peninsula to Russia, with many of the Ukrainians stating that it is an illegal construction project as part of the Russian occupation. Vehicle traffic on the bridge began in 2018 and the first train passed through it in 2020.
In the past, senior officials in the Ukrainian security system stated that the bridge would be a legitimate target for missiles. In addition to that, independent media in Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda and UNIAN, announced that it was an operation by the Ukrainian security service. Although the Ukrainian government did not respond officially, senior Ukrainian military and political officials responded positively on Twitter about what was happening.
A Ukrainian woman near the design of the special stamp that will be issued by the Post Office in honor of the Crimean bridge explosion / Photo: Reuters, Stringer
Mykhailo Podiliak, adviser to the presidency of Ukraine, tweeted “Crimea, a bridge, a start. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything that is the Russian occupation must be deported.” The postmaster of Ukraine even announced that a new set of stamps will be printed to mark the event. The official Twitter account of the Ukrainian government increased and tweeted “Sick burn” (a fire, but also an ‘excellent kill’ in American slang). The climax came when Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, tweeted a video of Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to which was edited a photo of the bridge explosion, with the caption “Good morning, Ukraine!”.
Good morning, Ukraine!just now pic.twitter.com/UQMI6LheSR
– Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) October 8, 2022
In Russia, Putin has already ordered the creation of a government commission of inquiry to look into the incident. The opening of the bridge in 2018 is considered one of Putin’s greatest achievements as the President of Russia and until now it has been one of the safest roads for the Russian military. On top of that, the explosion happened just a day after Putin’s 70th birthday. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that “Kyiv’s reaction to the destruction of the important civilian infrastructure only testifies to its terrorist nature.”