Russia Ukraine War: According to Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee, the explosion and fire caused one of the two links of the vehicle bridge to collapse, while the other link remained intact.
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 setback 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.”
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The committee held off on assigning responsibility right away.
Russia’s military activities in the south are dependent on the Crimean Peninsula, which has significant symbolic importance for the country. Transporting goods to the peninsula would be substantially more difficult if the bridge were rendered unusable.
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, while the other link remained standing.
Commuter train travel across the bridge has been put on hold by the authorities.
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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 kilometers (12 miles).
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 several times.
In May 2018, Russia allowed automobile traffic on the first section of the bridge. The next year saw the opening of the parallel rail bridge.
The $3.6 billion project is an actual representation of Moscow’s claims to the Crimean peninsula. Prior to Russian forces seizing further Ukrainian territory on the northern end of the Sea of Azov in fierce fighting, notably in the area around the city of Mariupol, earlier this year, it was the only land connection between Russia and the peninsula.
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Russia’s vulnerability was highlight in August by a string of explosions at an airfield and armaments stockpile in Crimea.
Hours after explosions shook the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv early on Saturday. Sending towering plumes of smoke into the sky and setting off a string of subsequent explosions. A truck bomb on the bridge exploded.
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, said on Telegram that missile strikes in the city’s center were the cause of the early-morning blasts. He said that one of the city’s medical facilities. And a non-residential structure both caught fire as a result of the explosions.
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There were no reports of casualties right away.
The explosions occurred hours after Russia focused its ongoing invasion of Ukraine on regions it had forcibly seized. And as the death toll from previous missile strikes on residential complexes in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia reached 14.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee presented the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday to human rights organizations. In Russia, Ukraine, and a detained activist from Belarus, a Moscow ally.
The honor was also given to “three great supporters of human rights, democracy, and peaceful coexistence.” According to the committee’s head, Berit Reiss-Andersen. But it was widely seen as a criticism of Putin and his handling of the deadliest armed war in Europe since World War II.
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More On The Matter
In order to illegitimately claim four Ukrainian territories as Russian property, including the Zaporizhzhia region, which is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and whose reactors shut down last month, Putin sign paperwork on Wednesday.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, which was conduct out after Moscow claimed peninsula inhabitants has vote to join Russia, anticipated that action.
Widespread criticism followed by US and EU sanctions resulted from such action.
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