The Kerch Bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia has been closed by an “emergency” that killed two people and injured a child, after local residents reported hearing explosions in the early hours of Monday morning.
The heavily guarded road and rail link is among the Kremlin’s most important and high-prestige infrastructure projects, and the only overland link that goes directly from Russia to occupied Crimea.
Video published by the pro-Kremlin Crimea 24 channel, taken from the adjacent railway bridge, showed a section of the road bridge had sheared off and was sloping towards the Black Sea.
На телеканале «Крым 24» показали поврежденную часть Крымского моста. Видео снято из вагона поезда. pic.twitter.com/91eMrwnzRG
— The Insider (@the_ins_ru) July 17, 2023
There were reports of explosions at about 3am local time, and cars heading for the bridge were stopped early on Monday morning, after the head of the Russian-controlled administration in Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said there was an “emergency situation” on the 145th pillar of the bridge.
Russia’s transport ministry said the road had been damaged but not the pillars, and did not say what had caused the deaths. Photographs published on Russian Telegram channels showed a car that appeared to have been smashed up near the scene of the explosion. Train services were expected to restart early on Monday, Aksyonov said.
If the damage was caused by an attack, it will be the second time the bridge has been sabotaged, and the latest significant blow to Russian military prestige. It comes after a coup attempt by the Wagner mercenary group last month and amid reports that senior field commanders are being removed from their posts in Ukraine.
A ferry service linking Crimea with Kuban, in the Russian region of Krasnodar, has also been halted, the Russian Tass news agency reported.
The bridge, a much-hated symbol of Russia’s occupation of Crimea, was built on Putin’s orders and inaugurated by him in 2018. It is a key link for bringing troops, equipment and supplies to Moscow’s invasion force in Ukraine.
Moscow has in the past boasted of layers of protection, ranging from the latest weapons systems to military dolphins. In October 2022, the day after Putin’s 70th birthday, a massive explosion destroyed a section of the Ukraine-bound road and engulfed the rail link in flames.
Kyiv did not initially claim that attack, but earlier this month, the deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar marked 500 days since Russia’s invasion by acknowledging in a Telegram post that Ukraine was behind the truck bombing “to break Russian logistics”.
After it was repaired, Putin drove a Mercedes across the bridge to Crimea, underlining how important he considers the project.
Asked about the latest apparent attack on Monday morning, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, quoted a previous statement by the…
2023-07-17 02:11:51
Link from www.theguardian.com
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