The spectacular explosion on the Crimean bridge was not claimed

The Crimean Bridge, a vital and symbolic infrastructure link, was attached to the east of the Russian peninsula at the level of the Kerch Strait to the detriment of Ukraine in 2014. It was partially destroyed by a huge explosion on Saturday, October 8 A truck bomb was attributed to Moscow.

In a contradictory tweet on Saturday morning, Ukrainian presidential adviser Myhailo Podoliak later pointed out after appearing to half-heartedly acknowledge the Ukrainian attack. “Russian Song”Argues that the explosion was the result of an internal struggle between the FSB [les services spéciaux] And the Russian Army.

In his evening speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky contented himself with referring to the annexed peninsula: “Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea”Not to mention the explosion.

A snub to Moscow

CCTV footage shared on social media showed a powerful explosion as several vehicles crossed the bridge, including a truck that Russian authorities suspect was the source of the blast. In other scenes, we can see tank cars burning on the railway side of the bridge and two spans of one of the two collapsed roadways.

According to investigators, three people were killed in the early morning attack: the driver of the truck and two people, a man and a woman, who drove near the explosion and whose bodies were pulled from the water.

Crimean authorities announced in the afternoon that traffic for cars and buses had resumed on the bridge’s only roadway, which remained intact. Heavy goods vehicles will now cross on ferries. According to the operator of the railroad, two trains were able to depart in the direction of Moscow and St. Petersburg; Russian news agency TASS reported that rail traffic for passengers and goods was fully resumed from Saturday to Sunday, but with delays.

Investigators said they had established the identity of the owner of the truck bomb, a resident of the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, and that investigations were ongoing.

The Crimean Bridge, a hugely expensive piece of concrete infrastructure built at the behest of Vladimir Putin, connects the annexed peninsula to Russian territory, making it possible to transport military equipment, particularly to troops fighting in Ukraine. If Kiev is responsible for the fire and explosion, it will be a disappointment for Moscow that such an important route from the front could be damaged by Ukrainian forces.

“Two months” repair

“Crimea. The bridge. The beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine., Mikhaïlo Podoliak commented on Twitter this morning, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, in a statement later released by the president’s office, he attributed the explosion to a civil struggle between the FSB and the Russian military. “It should be noted that the truck that exploded, by all indications, entered the bridge from the Russian side. So we must look to Russia for answers. (…) All this clearly points to the Russian path.He declared.

However, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, thought the reactions at Q showed. “Terrorist nature” Ukrainian authorities. The Russian military, struggling on the Kherson front in southern Ukraine, has assured that its troop supplies are not threatened. “Distributions (…) carried out continuously and completely by land route and partly by sea”she announced.

Ukraine has attacked several bridges in the Kherson region in recent months, disrupting Russian supplies and military bases in Crimea. Vladimir Konstantinov, head of the regional parliament set up by Russia, denounced a coup if Moscow refrained from blaming Ukraine directly. “Ukrainian saboteurs”.

The head of the peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, tried to appease him by saying that Crimea had a month’s worth of fuel and two months’ worth of food. The Ukrainian region of Kherson may take repairs, according to the Russian occupation official in neighboring Crimea, Kirill Stremoussov. “two months”.

New Russian command

Russia has always maintained that the bridge is safe despite the fighting in Ukraine, but has in the past threatened Kiev with retaliation if Ukrainian forces attack this or other infrastructure in Crimea. Russian MP Oleg Morozov, quoted by RIA Novosti agency, demanded an answer on Saturday “enough”. Otherwise such terrorist attacks will increase manifold.he said.

Faced with a Ukrainian military heavily dependent on Western arms supplies, Vladimir Putin in late September ordered the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists and the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, although Moscow only partially controls them. In a sign of discontent in high places over the way operations are run, Moscow announced on Saturday that it had appointed a new figure as its leader. “Special Military Operation” In Ukraine, General Sergey Surovykin, 55 years old.

Finally, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, at the center of a months-long standoff in southern Ukraine that required its shutdown, lost its external power again due to detonation and reliance on emergency generators, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned. , whose work is on site, Saturday. The number of explosions in the eponymous city increased on Thursday, with the Ukrainian emergency service reporting at least seventeen dead on Saturday evening.