KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — An explosion caused the partial collapse of a bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia on Saturday, damaging a key source artery for the Kremlin’s failed war effort in southern Ukraine. The Russian government said a truck bomb caused the explosion. and 3 other people were killed.
The speaker of Crimea’s Kremlin-backed regional parliament quickly blamed Ukraine for the blast, though Moscow did not blame. Ukrainian officials threatened to attack the bridge and some celebrated the destruction, but Kyiv did not claim responsibility.
The attack came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 70, dealing him a humiliating blow that could lead him to raise the bar in his war against Ukraine. Hours after the explosion, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Air Force chief Gen. Sergei Surovikin would be the commander of all Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
He marked the first official appointment of a bachelor commander for the entire Russian force in Ukraine. Over the summer, the army announced that Surovikin had been placed at the head of Russian troops in southern Ukraine.
In a possible setback for Putin, a Kremlin-backed official in Kherson, one of 4 regions annexed via Russia in Ukraine, announced a partial evacuation of civilians.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian administration in Kherson, told Russian state news firm RIA Novosti that young people and their parents, as well as the elderly, could be transferred to two regions in southern Russia.
Russian lawmakers have called on Putin to claim responsibility for an “anti-terror operation” in reaction to the bridge attack. Such a move could be used by the Kremlin to further expand the powers of security agencies, ban gatherings, tighten censorship, introduce restrictions and expand a partial mobilization Putin ordered last month.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said a truck bomb caused seven fuel-guzzling carriages to catch fire, causing a “partial collapse in two sections of the bridge. “the explosion and their bodies were found, Russia’s investigative commission said. It did provide the main points about the third victim or what happened to the truck driver.
The blast occurred despite the fact that all cars passing by it are subject to automatic explosives checks through control systems, prompting an avalanche of critical comments from Russian war bloggers.
The truck that exploded belonged to a resident of Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, Russia’s investigative commission said. He said investigators came to his home from the investigation and are reviewing the truck’s address and other details.
The 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge across the Kerch Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov opened in 2018 and is the longest in Europe. The $3. 6 billion allocation is a tangible symbol of Moscow’s claims to Crimea and has provided an important link to the peninsula, which Russia annexed to Ukraine in 2014.
Crimea has a symbolic price for Russia and is imperative to maintain its military operations in southern Ukraine. While Russia seized the spaces north of Crimea at the beginning of the invasion and built a land hall there along the Sea of Azov, Ukraine is launching a counteroffensive for them.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said troops in the south were receiving mandatory materials by land and sea. Russia’s Energy Ministry said Crimea had enough fuel for 15 days and used tactics to fill stockpiles.
Rail and vehicular traffic on the bridge was suspended. Rail traffic will resume on Saturday night, the Russian Transport Ministry said, and car traffic on one of the two routes that remained intact will resume soon. The ministry said the cars would drive in one direction in one direction and alternate.
Putin reported the explosion and ordered the creation of a governing panel to deal with the emergency.
The speaker of Crimea’s Kremlin-backed regional parliament blamed Ukraine for the blast but downplayed the severity and said the bridge would be repaired quickly.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian parliament’s reduced space foreign affairs committee, said “consequences will be imminent” if Ukraine is responsible.
Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Russian Communist Party, which is nominally in opposition but votes according to the Kremlin’s wishes in parliament, said the “terrorist attack” serves as a wake-up call.
“The long-awaited measures have not yet been taken, the special operation will have to be remodeled into an anti-terrorist operation,” he said.
Sergei Mironov, leader of the Just Russia faction in parliament, said Russia is responding to the explosion on the bridge by attacking Ukraine’s main infrastructure, adding power plants, bridges and railways.
The statements, especially through Zyuganov and Slutsky, may bring a resolution through Putin to call for an anti-terror operation.
On Saturday, the parliamentary leader of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party did not claim that Kyiv was responsible, but gave the impression of claiming so after Moscow’s seizure of Crimea.
“Russia’s illegal structure is beginning to crumble and catch fire. The explanation is simple: if you build something explosive, it will explode faster or later,” David Arakhamia, leader of the People’s Servant party, wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s postal service said it would include stamps commemorating the explosion as it did after the Moskva, a Russian flagship cruiser, sank in a Ukrainian attack in late May.
Secretary of Ukraine’s Defense and National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, tweeted a video with the Kerch Bridge on the burning side and a video with Marilyn Monroe singing a song she noted “Happy Birthday, Mr. Preaspectnt” on the right side.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “the Kyiv regime’s reaction to the destruction of civilian infrastructure is of a terrorist nature. “
In August, Russia suffered a series of explosions at an air base and ammunition depot in Crimea, underscoring its vulnerability.
The local government in Crimea has made conflicting statements about what the broken bridge would mean for citizens and its ability to buy goods for customers on the peninsula, a popular destination for Russian tourists year-round that is home to Sevastopol, a key city and naval base.
The Association of Russian Tourism Agencies estimated that some 50,000 tourists were in Crimea at the time of the explosion.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost its last source of external force as a result of a new bombing and now relies on backup diesel generators, the UN nuclear watchdog said.
The explosion on the bridge came hours after explosions rocked the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv early Saturday, sending towering plumes of smoke into the sky and triggering a series of secondary explosions.
Ukrainian officials accused Russia of bombing Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with surface-to-air missiles and said at least one user was wounded. The measures mainly targeted two residential neighborhoods, regional governor Oleh Sinehubov said on Telegram.