A serious incident occurs on the strategically important bridge connecting Crimea and mainland Russia. A major fire paralyzes traffic on the longest structure in Europe. Russian President Putin personally inaugurated the bridge in 2018.
According to the Russian authorities, a car bomb has exploded on the bridge that connects Crimea to mainland Russia. The detonation triggered a major fire. According to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, at 06:07 local time, a car exploded on the road line of the bridge. As a result, seven tanks of a freight train caught fire on the way to the Crimean Peninsula. Damage was caused to the road line, and traffic has been interrupted since then, according to the authorities. The government in Simferopol announced that a ferry connection was being examined.
Apparently, not only several wagons with fuel burned, as can be seen in photos distributed in Russian and Ukrainian media. The roadway on the road section is also massively damaged. After the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine at the end of February, there were several explosions in Crimea, causing severe damage, including at military bases.
“There are no injuries for the time being,” Crimean leadership adviser Oleg Kryuchkov said, according to Russian media. According to Kryuchkov, the fire is said to have started in a cistern at the end of a freight train. However, the widespread images are more likely to lead to the conclusion that a car explosion was the cause of the fire.
There were repeated threats in the capital Kyiv that the bridge between the peninsula and the Russian mainland, which Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin personally inaugurated in 2018, would be under fire. Most recently, in the Kerch region, which borders directly on the bridge in Crimea, there have been repeated incidents with drones exploding. Russia had issued a strong warning against shelling the bridge – a key strategic structure – and threatened to target command centers in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv if it did.
The Ukrainian leadership had repeatedly requested long-range heavy weapons from the West. This should then also destroy the bridge, as it was said in Kyiv. With a length of 19 kilometers, the Crimean bridge system, which has a motorway and a railway line next to it, is the longest structure in Europe. Kremlin boss Putin opened it himself in 2018 and also rode on a train. Passenger trains have been running since the end of 2019, freight trains since summer 2020.
The spokeswoman for the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny shared a video of the fire and the damage on social networks – and commented that it was probably a present for Putin’s 70th birthday. The head of the Kremlin celebrated the anniversary on Friday in his hometown of St. Petersburg
