While the blast would “not affect army supply very much”, there would be problems with logistics for Crimea, Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy administrator of the Kherson region, said in a social media post. Images showed half of the roadway blown away, with the other half still attached. ![]() It said two spans of road bridge had partially collapsed, but that the arch spanning the channel through which ships travel between the Black Sea and Azov Sea was not damaged.Įmergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov told state news agency TASS that quick-thinking railway workers who uncoupled the burning fuel wagons had kept the blaze from spreading. The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said a freight truck had blown up on the bridge’s roadway at 6:07 a.m. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Kyiv’s reaction to the destruction of civilian infrastructure “testifies to its terrorist nature”. “Undoubtedly, we are witnessing the beginning of large-scale negative processes in Russia,” Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a commentary, blaming infighting among Putin’s circle as he attributed the blast to Russian operators. ![]() Ukraine’s postal service said it would print a special stamp. 24, Ukrainian officials have regularly suggested they wanted to destroy the bridge. The head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council posted a video of the bridge on social media alongside a video of Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy birthday, Mr President”. “This is a future without occupiers, across our territory, particularly in Crimea.” “But however cloudy it is, Ukrainians know … our future is sunny,” he added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not refer to the blast in a video address on Saturday, saying merely that the weather in Crimea was cloudy. It designated Air Force General Sergei Surovikin to take charge of the invasion effort. The Kerch bridge blast came a day after Putin’s 70th birthday, coinciding with Russia’s third senior military appointment in a week. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. “Information about victims is being confirmed, but it is already known about dozens of dead or injured,” the military’s central command said on its Facebook page.Īt least 17 people had been killed, with roads and apartment buildings damaged, city official Anatoliy Kurtev said earlier, in a post on the Telegram messaging app. In the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, just 125 km (80 miles) from a Russian-held nuclear power plant that is Europe’s largest, overnight shelling caused dozens of casualties, Ukraine’s armed forces said. Limited road traffic resumed about 10 hours after the explosion, and Russia’s transport ministry cleared rail traffic to restart. On the bridge’s upper level, seven fuel tanker wagons of a 59-wagon train heading for the peninsula also caught fire. Russian officials said three people had been killed, probably the occupants of a car travelling near a truck that blew up. “Conceivably the Russians can rebuild it, but they can’t defend it while losing a war,” said political analyst James Nixey of Britain’s Chatham House think tank. On Saturday, Putin signed a decree for tighter security for the bridge, as well as the infrastructure supplying electricity and natural gas to Crimea, and ordered an investigation. It was not yet clear if the blast was a deliberate attack, but the damage to such a high-profile structure came amid battlefield defeats for Russia, and could further cloud Kremlin reassurances that the conflict is going to plan. ![]() The bridge is a major artery for the Russian forces that control most of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region and for the Russian naval port of Sevastopol, whose governor told locals, “Keep calm. Kyiv demands that Russian forces leave the Black Sea peninsula, as well as Ukrainian territory they seized in the invasion Putin launched in February. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the 19-km (12-mile) Crimea Bridge linking the region to its transport network was opened with great fanfare four years later by President Vladimir Putin. ![]() Russia’s defence ministry said its forces in southern Ukraine could be “fully supplied” through existing land and sea routes. The peninsula had a month’s worth of fuel and more than two months’ worth of food, he said.
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