After the explosion of a truck bomb on the bridge to the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, the trail leads according to the Ukraine after Russia. “It is worth noting that according to all indications, the truck that exploded entered the bridge from the Russian side,” Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podoliak said on Saturday. “So the answers should be sought in Russia,” Podoliak added. “All this clearly points to a trail to Russia.”
Photos and videos of the burning bridge could be seen on Twitter on Saturday. News agencies report multiple explosions. The roadway on this part of the road was massively damaged, but traffic was able to start up again over the course of Saturday despite the destruction. The bridge is now “open for cars and buses,” said the head of administration of the Crimean peninsula, Sergey Aksyonov, in the online service Telegram.
At least three people died in the explosion, according to Russian sources. The National Investigative Committee said the bodies had been pulled out of the water. It is preliminary information, it said. People are said to have been sitting in vehicles when a truck coming from the mainland exploded in the morning on the Crimean Bridge car route. Investigators believe there was a bomb on or under the vehicle.
Explosion on Crimean bridge: Russians identify truck drivers
The so-called Kerch Bridge was built after Russia annexed Crimea and was completed in 2018. Russia’s National Investigative Committee said that, according to preliminary information, a truck exploded on the Crimean Bridge auto route at 6:07 am on Saturday morning. The vehicle came from mainland Russia and was heading towards the coastal town of Kerch in Crimea.
As a result, seven tanks of a freight train on the way to the Crimean Peninsula caught fire. Damage was caused to the road line, traffic is interrupted, according to the authorities. A ferry connection is to be set up. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set up a commission to investigate the incident.
The driver of the exploded truck is a resident of the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, Russian investigators said on Saturday, without naming the man. Accordingly, investigations were initiated at his residence, the documented route of the truck will be checked.
Crimean bridge destroyed: Ukraine cheers
In Ukraine, the images of the destroyed bridge were greeted with jubilation. “Crimea. The bridge. The beginning,” Advisor to the Ukrainian Presidential Office Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine.” Podoliak did not explicitly say that Ukraine was responsible for the explosions and fire.
Russia warned against shelling Crimea bridge
After the Russian attack on Ukraine at the end of February, there were multiple explosions in Crimea, causing severe damage, including at military bases. There were also repeated threats in the capital, Kyiv Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin inaugurated bridge between the peninsula and the Russian mainland under fire. Most recently, in the Kerch region, which borders directly on the bridge in Crimea, there have been repeated incidents with drones exploding.
Russia had issued strong warnings against shelling the bridge — a key strategic structure — and threatened to target command centers in the Ukrainian capital, 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.