According to Russian police, a truck bomb exploded on Saturday, setting fire to part of a bridge connecting Russia with the Crimean peninsula and causing it to collapse. This bridge served as a vital supply route for Moscow’s waning combat campaign in southern Ukraine.
After turning 70 the day before, the attack on the bridge dealt Russian President Vladimir Putin a humiliating blow that would prompt him to escalate his campaign against Ukraine.
According to Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee, the truck bomb set seven fuel-carrying railroad carriages on fire, which led to the “partial collapse of two portions of the bridge.” The committee held off on assigning blame right away.
Russia’s military activities in the south are dependent on the Crimean Peninsula, which has significant symbolic value for the country. Transporting goods to the peninsula would be substantially more difficult if the bridge were rendered inoperable.
Ukraine is waging a counteroffensive to retake the territories that Russia annexed north of Crimea early in the invasion and established a land corridor to it along the Sea of Azov.
The bridge features parts for both trains and cars. According to Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee, one of the two links of the automotive bridge collapsed due to the explosion and fire, but the other link remained standing.
Commuter train traffic across the bridge has been put on hold by the authorities. After learning of the explosion, Putin commanded the formation of a government committee to handle the crisis.
The longest bridge in Europe spans the Kerch Strait, connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, for 19 kilometres. It has given Russia access to the Crimean Peninsula, which Ukraine lost to Russia in 2014. Officials from Ukraine have threatened to destroy the bridge numerous times.
In May 2018, Russia allowed automobile traffic on the first section of the span. The next year saw the opening of the parallel rail bridge.
Prior to Russian forces seizing further Ukrainian territory on the northern end of the Sea of Azov in fierce combat, particularly in and around the city of Mariupol, earlier this year, the bridge served as Russia’s only land connection to the peninsula.
Russia’s vulnerability was highlighted in August by a string of explosions at an airbase and armaments stockpile in Crimea.
Hours after explosions shook the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine early on Saturday, sending towering plumes of smoke into the sky and setting off a string of subsequent explosions, a truck bomb detonated on the bridge.
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, said on Telegram that missile attacks in the city’s core were to blame for the early-morning blasts.
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