An explosion and severe fire severely damaged the Crimean Bridge between Russia and Moscow’s annexed Black Sea Peninsula. Several wagons of a freight train were on fire after an explosion on Saturday morning. The road has collapsed in at least two places. The Russian Ministry of Civil Defense said the fire had been extinguished. According to official information, there were no injuries. Traffic across the bridge has been halted. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the establishment of a commission to investigate the background to the incident.
In Ukraine, the pictures were taken with jubilation. “Crimea. The bridge. The beginning,” wrote the adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhailo Podoliak, on Twitter on Saturday. “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.
Not the first incident in Crimea
After the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine at the end of February, there were several explosions in Crimea, causing severe damage, including at military bases. Ukraine has repeatedly announced that it will take back Crimea. The military leadership in Kyiv had also announced that the bridge systems would be shelled as soon as the weapons supplied by the West were available. Most recently, in the Kerch region, which borders directly on the bridge in Crimea, there have been repeated incidents with drones exploding.
Russia has repeatedly emphasized that an attack on the bridge is a clear crossing of the red line. The power apparatus in Moscow threatened to attack the command centers in Kyiv in the event of an attack.
Russia’s national investigative committee announced on Saturday morning that, according to preliminary information, a truck had exploded on the bridge. The vehicle came from mainland Russia and was heading towards the coastal town of Kerch in Crimea. As a result of the explosion, seven fuel-filled tank wagons on the freight train caught fire. As a result, parts of the road collapsed. The agency did not explain how a single truck could have caused damage of such magnitude.
Action of the Ukrainian secret service?
The Internet newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda, citing security circles in Kyiv, reported that the secret service SBU was behind the special operation. The SBU did not confirm this, but like many official bodies in Ukraine, it published photos of the burning bridge on social networks – and accompanied it with a poem.
The authorities in Crimea announced that they would ensure traffic via ferries and via the land corridor recently occupied in Ukraine. There were no threats of supply bottlenecks, according to the Crimean capital Simferopol. Crimean parliament leader Vladimir Konstantinov said the bridge was damaged by “Ukrainian vandals”. The Russian Ministry of Energy announced that the fuel supply was secured, regardless of the diesel burned.
With a length of 19 kilometers, the Crimean bridge system, which has a motorway and a railway line next to it, is the longest structure in Europe. Kremlin boss Putin opened it himself in 2018 and also rode on a train. Passenger trains have been running since the end of 2019, freight trains since summer 2020.
The spokeswoman for the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny shared a video of the fire and the damage on social networks – and commented that it was probably a present for Putin’s 70th birthday. The head of the Kremlin celebrated the anniversary on Friday in his hometown of St. Petersburg.
The Ukrainian post chief Ihor Smylyanskyj announced in the Telegram news channel that a special stamp from the bridge would be printed. “The morning has never been so beautiful. For this holiday we are releasing a new stamp with the Crimean Bridge – or rather what is left of it.” Earlier, the Ukrainian Post Office issued a stamp of the destroyed cruiser Moskva of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
