A huge explosion has destroyed part of a key road and rail bridge linking Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, killing three people.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that a truck bomb on the bridge over the Kerch Strait, resulted in seven railway cars catching fire and a “partial collapse of two sections of the bridge.”
A man and a woman who were driving across the bridge were killed by the explosion and their bodies have now been recovered, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. There were no details given about the third victim.
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Ukraine is yet to claim responsibility for the attack but senior officials have celebrated the news.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelensky, said on Twitter: “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.”
The 12-mile, $3.6 billion bridge, which opened in 2018 and is the longest in Europe, is a key supply artery for the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Black smoke billows from a fire on the Kerch bridge that links Crimea to Russia, after a truck exploded, near Kerch.
Getty/ContributorRussia’s Energy Ministry said Crimea has enough fuel for 15 days but that it was working to provide more supplies.
The bombing comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 70th birthday.
The Russian foreign ministry said it had little doubt that Ukraine was responsible for the attack.
“The Kiev [Kyiv] regime’s reaction towards destruction of civilian infrastructure is a testament to its terrorist nature,” it said.
