Moscow partially reopens Crimean Bridge to car and train traffic after explosion
This is how Russia reacted to the explosion
After the explosion on the Crimean bridge, the prime minister of the annexed Crimea commented on the incident. Meanwhile, reports are mounting that people are panic-buying on the peninsula.
The strategically important Crimean bridge has become partly impassable due to an arson attack by a truck. An explosion destroyed one of two lanes of traffic. Russia resumed traffic via the second brace. Three people died in the incident.
Dhe Crimean bridge over the Kerch Strait was damaged but not destroyed by a heavy explosion and the resulting fire. The Ministry of Transport announced on Saturday evening that the bridge would be reopened to car and train traffic – but only to a limited extent on the intact lanes. Trucks have to cross over by ferry.
As the Russian head of administration in Crimea, Sergei Axyonov, announced, all vehicles would be fully checked. The journey is only possible in one direction at a time. The train operator “Grand Service Express” also reported that the first two trains had left the Crimean cities of Simferopol and Sevastopol in the direction of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
According to Russian sources, the explosion occurred at 06:07 local time on the road line of the bridge, which opened in 2014. A bomb in a truck set fire to seven wagons loaded with fuel on a freight train bound for the Crimean Peninsula, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said on Saturday. This in turn led to the “partial collapse of two bridge sections” guided.
Specifically, the explosion and fire led to the collapse of two sections of one of the two clasps for car traffic on the 19-kilometer stretch. Another clip is intact.
Tracks and roadways suffered massive damage from the explosion. Media close to the Kremlin have published videos showing a destroyed roadway and parts of the motorway that have fallen into the water. Similar recordings and photos are also circulating on social media. Several burnt-out wagons of the freight train can be seen on the adjacent train route.
A first report, according to which there were no injuries, has now been corrected: According to Moscow, at least three people died in the detonation. Their bodies had been pulled out of the water, according to the national investigative committee. People are said to have sat in vehicles.
The truck owner is from Krasnodar
It was not initially announced who planted the bomb. Nor was it explained how a single truck could cause damage of such magnitude. However, the owner of the truck has now been identified. Russian investigators said on Saturday that it was a resident of the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, without naming the man. Accordingly, investigations were initiated at his residence, the documented route of the truck will be checked.
The first press photos showed the fires on the bridge on Saturday morning
Which: REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin had been informed, the Kremlin said in the morning. He had ordered a commission to investigate the causes of the fire, said spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to the Interfax agency.
“Crimea. The bridge. The beginning,” cheers Ukraine
In Ukraine, meanwhile, the pictures of the burning and destroyed bridge were received with jubilation. “Crimea. The bridge. The beginning,” Advisor to the Presidential Office of Ukraine Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter. “Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine.”
However, Podoliak did not explicitly say that Ukraine was responsible for the explosions and fire on the bridge. This, in turn, was insinuated by the US newspaper “Washington Post” on Saturday, which attributed the attack to “Ukrainian special forces” in its online edition.
Ukraine, which has been fighting a war of aggression by Russia since the end of February, has repeatedly announced that it will take back Crimea.
After the Russian attack on Ukraine at the end of February, there had already been several explosions in Crimea, causing severe damage, including at military bases. There have also been repeated threats in the capital Kyiv that the Kerch Bridge between the peninsula and the Russian mainland, inaugurated by Putin, will be fired upon. Most recently, in the Kerch region, which borders directly on the bridge in Crimea, there have been repeated incidents with drones exploding.
Russia, in turn, had issued a strong warning against shelling the bridge – a key strategic structure – and threatened to target command centers in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv if it did. The Ukrainian leadership had repeatedly requested long-range heavy weapons from the West. This should then also destroy the bridge, as it was said in Kyiv.
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