A huge explosion shakes the Kerch bridge linking Russia to Crimea

First, a truck exploded, which immediately afterwards caused the chain detonation of at least seven fuel tanks transported by railThe Russian National Anti-Terrorist Commission has attributed the start of the chain of explosions to the explosion of a truckIn a tweet, the adviser to the president Zelenski Mjailo Podoliak seems to recognize that Kiev was behind the explosion The Kerch bridge, one of the main connection routes between Russia and Crimea, was seriously damaged early this Saturday as a result of a huge explosion first attributed to the explosion of a truck which immediately afterwards caused the chain detonation of at least seven fuel tanks transported by rail, according to Russian authorities who have also confirmed that at least three people have died in the explosion. The three fatalities are presumably the passengers of a vehicle that circulated right next to the truck whose e The explosion sparked the ignition of at least seven fuel tanks on a train running along the bridge’s rail track at the same time. The incident investigation committee has also identified the truck driver as a resident of the Russian town of Kuban, in the Russian region of Krasnodar (southwest of the country). The bridge, also known simply as the Crimean bridge, is considered to be a important logistics supply route for Russian forces in Crimea and southern Russian-occupied Ukraine. The structure, 19 kilometers long, includes a rail transport route and a motorway. Inaugurated by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in 2018, it is one of the most important infrastructure works on the peninsula since its incorporation into Russia in 2014. According to the head of the Crimean government, Sergei Aksionov, after the explosion, collapsed two sections of the highway. Due to the damage, all car and truck traffic has been suspended and a ferry service has been set up to transport people across the Kerch Strait, where shipping lanes remain operational for the time being. The National Anti-Terrorism Commission of Russia has attributed the start of the chain of explosions to the explosion of a truck that “caused the chain ignition of seven fuel tanks on a train that was moving in the direction of the Crimean peninsula,” according to a statement collected by the agency TASS.For its part, the press service of the Crimean Railway has pointed out that the fuel tanks were being transported by train in the direction of Crimea and occupied one of the last freight cars of the railway. The chain of detonations, the Russian Anti-Terrorist Committee and the railway service agree, occurred around 06:05 local time. “The locomotive and part of the wagons have been transferred to the Kerch station. Work is currently being carried out emergency and the causes of the incident are being established,” according to the statement, collected by TASS. Putin has ordered an immediate investigation of what happened and has instructed Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov and Transport Minister Vitali Saveliev immediately go to the Kerch Strait to assess first-hand what happened. The Russian Prosecutor’s Office has already opened a criminal case for alleged “crime” for the explosion on the bridge, according to EFE. A first assessment by the All-Russian Union of Insurers (VSS) estimates that the explosion has caused material damage worth about 500 million rubles (about 8.5 million euros). Russia points to Ukraine for this “terrorist attack” Although the Crimean Government Headquarters have not yet indicated the exact reasons for the incident, the president of the Crimean Council of State , Vladimir Konstantinov, has already accused Ukraine of what happened. “Ukrainian vandals have come to the Crimean bridge with blood on their hands. Now they have something to be proud of: for 23 years of their management they have not managed to build anything worthy of attention in Crimea, but they managed to damage the Russian bridge. This is the whole essence of the kyiv regime. Death and destruction is the only thing they get,” he wrote on his Telegram account. Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova has denounced the official Ukrainian reactions to the explosion. “Ukraine’s reaction to the emergency at the Crimean bridge attests to the terrorist nature of the kyiv regime,” Zajarova said on her Telegram account. Zajarova was referring to comments such as the one made by the adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, Mijailo Podoliak, who, without explicitly taking responsibility for what happened, has published a cryptic tweet with the words “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning”, accompanied by an image of the collapsed and submerged sections of the highway after the explosion. “All everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,” added the presidential adviser. The Ukrainian Air Force has also published a message on social networks in which they limit themselves to applauding the partial destruction of the bridge. Other Ukrainian officials have also taken the opportunity to boast of the coincidence of the explosion with the 70th birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin. , such as the secretary of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, who has published on his Twitter account a video of the burning bridge accompanied by the iconic video in which the American singer and actress Marilyn Monroe sings “Happy Birthday” to the country’s president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in 1962.