A powerful truck explosion seriously damaged Russia’s road-and-rail bridge to Crimea on Saturday, hitting a prestige symbol of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula and the key supply route to Russian forces battling to hold territory captured in southern Ukraine.
The blast on the bridge over the Kerch Strait, for which Russia did not immediately assign blame, prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no direct claim of responsibility.
Since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, Ukrainian officials have made regular allusions to their desire to destroy the Kerch bridge, seen in Ukraine as a symbol of Russia`s occupation of Crimea. Ukraine`s postal service said on Saturday it would print a special stamp to commemorate the blast.
Russia`s Defence Ministry said in a statement that its forces in southern Ukraine could be "fully supplied" through existing land and sea routes, and the Transport Ministry said rail traffic across the bridge would resume by 1700 GMT.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Kyiv`s reaction to the destruction of civilian infrastructure "testifies to its terrorist nature".
The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said a freight truck had blown up on the bridge`s roadway at 6:07 a.m. (0307 GMT), causing seven fuel tanker wagons to catch fire on a train heading for the peninsula on the bridge`s upper level.
It said two spans of road bridge had partially collapsed, but that the arch spanning the Kerch Strait, the waterway through which ships travel between the Black Sea and Azov Sea, was not damaged.
