Russia The attack on the expansive Kerch Bridge to Crimea, which was carried out by Ukrainian special forces, was referred to as “a terrorist act” by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and an investigation into the explosion that damaged a significant Russian monument was launched right away.
On Saturday (local time), a large bridge connecting Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine eight years ago, was struck by what Russian authorities are calling a truck bomb.
Road and rail traffic on the bridge were temporarily halted, damaging an important supply route for the Kremlin’s forces and dealing a sharp blow to Russian prestige.
“There’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation,” Putin said in a video of a meeting with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin.
“And the special services of Ukraine are the authors, perpetrators, and those who ordered it.”
According to Bastrykin, the attack was carried out by Russian and foreign nationals as well as Ukrainian secret services.
He added, “We have already determined the truck’s route, and it included stops in Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia, and Krasnodar, a province in southern Russia.
The declarations came after Russian missile attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia the previous night that destroyed a substantial portion of an apartment complex and killed at least 12 people.
According to the Ukrainian air force, the six missiles used in that attack were fired from Zaporizhzhia region territories under Russian occupation. Despite the fact that the same-named territory’s capital is still governed by Ukraine, the region is one of four that Russia claimed as its own this month.
Nearly eight months after Russia invaded Ukraine in a war that many believed would be short-lived, Russia has seen a number of defeats.
While Moscow’s decision to call up more troops has sparked protests and a mass migration of Russian citizens, Ukrainian forces have recently launched a counteroffensive, retaking territory in the south and east.
The areas just to the north of Crimea, especially Zaporizhzhia, have seen recent combat.
In a Telegram post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed regret at the most recent assault.
“Zaporizhzhia once more. Once more, in the middle of the night, vicious attacks on humans targeted residential buildings, “He composed. Russian missile attacks on city residential buildings on Thursday resulted in at least 19 fatalities (local time).
“They will answer,” he continued, “from the one who gave this command, to everyone who carried out this order.
Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, referred to the assaults on civilians as war crimes and sought a global inquiry.
Former speechwriter for Putin and independent Russian political analyst Abbas Gallyamov claimed that the Russian leader, who established a committee to look into the bridge incident, had not reacted aggressively enough to appease incensed war hawks. According to him, the attack and the response “energised the opposition, while the loyalists feel demoralised.”
They become demoralised when they realise that the authorities are lying when they claim that everything is going according to plan and that we are winning, he explained.
In May 2018, Putin personally inaugurated the Kerch Bridge by driving a truck across it as a representation of Moscow’s claims to the Crimean peninsula. The longest bridge in all of Europe is essential to the continuation of Russian military operations in southern Ukraine.
It has not been reported damaged by anyone.
Videos of the bridge showed damage from the explosion that, according to the Institute for the Study of War, “is likely to exacerbate friction in Russian logistics for some time,” but did not seriously impair Russia’s capacity to supply its soldiers in Ukraine.
Putin refers to the Ukraine’s bridge explosion as a “terrorist act.”
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