Putin accuses Ukraine of orchestrating Crimea bridge blast, calls it terrorism

^{Images show part of the bridge’s road blown away, although rail services and partial road traffic resumed}

President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of orchestrating the Kerch Bridge explosion, masterminding an “act of terrorism” that destroyed a key bridge linking Russia and Crimea, as he prepared to hold a meeting of his security council on Monday amid growing calls for reprisals.

This photo shows black smoke billows from a fire on the Kerch bridge that links Crimea to Russia, after a truck exploded, near Kerch, on Saturday. – The Jordan Times (AFP photo)

The bridge, which holds important strategic and symbolic value to Russia, was partly damaged on Saturday by what Moscow has said was a truck bomb. Road and rail traffic on the 19km bridge over the Kerch Strait was temporarily halted, hindering a vital supply route for Russia’s armed forces battling a renewed Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Inaugurated with the great fanfare in 2018, the bridge is also a vital artery for the port of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based, as well as an imposing symbol of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

“There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure,” Putin said on Sunday in a video on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel.

Source: Institute for the Study of War. BBC

Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said ahead of Monday’s meeting that Russia should kill the “terrorists” responsible for the attack.

“Russia can only respond to this crime by directly killing terrorists, as is the custom elsewhere in the world. This is what Russian citizens expect,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass.

Putin’s anger over the suspected attack also coincided with growing concerns that Moscow could resort to nuclear weapons, after Putin repeatedly cautioned the West that any attack on Russia could provoke a nuclear response.

Putin on Sunday met Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, who presented findings of an inquiry into what he said was the explosion of a vehicle and subsequent fire on the bridge.

Bastrykin said the vehicle had travelled through Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Russia’s Krasnodar region before reaching the bridge. Among those who helped Ukrainian special services prepare were “citizens of Russia and foreign countries,” Bastrykin added in the video on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel.

The Russian transport ministry, quoted by RIA news agency, said nearly 1,500 people and 162 heavy cargoes had travelled by ferry across the Kerch Strait since the explosion.

Road and rail traffic on the 19km bridge over the Kerch Strait was temporarily halted. – The Straits Times

Russian aircraft launched at least 12 missiles in Sunday’s attack, partially destroying a nine-storey apartment block, levelling five other residential buildings and damaging many more, Starukh said on state-run television.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack as “absolute evil”.

Zaporizhzhia city, about 52 km from a Russian-held nuclear power plant, has been under frequent shelling in recent weeks, with 19 people killed on Thursday.

Most of the Zaporizhzhia region, including the nuclear plant, has been under Russian control since the early days of Russia’s invasion in February. The capital of the region, Zaporizhzhia city, remains under Ukrainian control.

Rescuers and residents remove debris in a residential area of Zaporizhzhia that was badly damaged by a Russian attack. – Aljazeera (Stringer/Reuters)

Kyiv demands that Russian forces leave the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, as well as Ukrainian territory they have seized in the invasion Putin launched in February. Ukraine has recaptured more than 1,170 square kilometres (450 square miles) of land in its southern Kherson region since launching its counterattack in late August, a military spokesperson said on Sunday. – News Agencies