October 8, 2022
A large fire on the only crossing between the occupied Crimean peninsula and Russia was caused by a lorry explosion, Russian officials say.
A blast on the road section led to oil tankers on the rail section catching fire, before the road collapsed.
Crimea was annexed in 2014 by Russia, which now uses the bridge to move military equipment into Ukraine.
The official Twitter account of the Ukraine government responded to the fire by tweeting: “Sick burn.”
An adviser to Ukraine’s President Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, called the damage a “beginning” – but did not directly claim Ukrainian responsibility.
“Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine defence ministry compared the bridge explosion to the sinking of Russia’s Moskva missile cruiser in April.
“Two notorious symbols of Russian power in Ukrainian Crimea have gone down,” it tweeted. “What’s next in line?”
It is hard to exaggerate the significance, and symbolism, of seeing the bridge on fire. Opened by President Putin in 2018, it was meant to symbolise that Crimea was Russian.
Russia has used the bridge to move military equipment, ammunition, and personnel from Russia to battlefields in southern Ukraine.
As such, Ukrainian authorities said it was a legitimate target, as they vow to retake the peninsula.
Any attack on Crimea, where the Russian army has a massive presence, will be seen as another massive humiliation for the Kremlin.
The bridge is particularly hated by Ukrainians. Social media in Ukraine erupted in celebration on seeing the fire – one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 70.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) said: “At 06:07 Moscow time today [03:07 GMT], an explosion was set off at a cargo vehicle on the motorway part of the Crimean bridge on the side of the Taman peninsula, which set fire to seven fuel tanks of a train that was en route to the Crimean peninsula.
“Two motorway sections of the bridge partially collapsed.”
Crimean parliamentary speaker Vladimir Konstantinov blamed the explosion on “Ukrainian vandals, who have finally managed to reach their bloody hands to the Crimean bridge”.
He added the damage to the bridge would be “promptly restored, since it is not of a serious nature”.
President Putin has been briefed about the “emergency” on the bridge and has ordered a government inquiry, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, in comments quoted by Interfax news agency.
The 19km (12-mile) bridge across the Kerch Strait, which cost £2.7bn to build, was opened by President Putin four years after Moscow illegally annexed Crimea.
The crossing is more than 100 miles from Ukrainian-held territory. One explosives expert told the BBC the fire was probably not caused by a missile.
“The lack of obvious blast / fragmentation damage on the road surface suggests that an air-delivered weapon was not used,” he said.
He said it was possible that “a well-planned attack from below may have been the cause”.
“I suspect explosives on the road bridge and train deck were initiated near simultaneously using coded radio command,” he added.
Kyiv has the momentum in this conflict. The army has reclaimed large swathes of territory, forcing Russian troops to abandon long-held positions.
Amid the losses, Moscow has begun a chaotic military mobilisation – which led to rare anti-war protests in Russia, and a huge exodus of military-age men.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63183404
The end of this bridge will be the beginning of the peninsula’s liberation.
“Ukrainian vandals, who have finally managed to reach their bloody hands to the Crimean bridge”.
So, ruskie hands are clean, despite shelling and bombing schools, kindergartens, hospitals, shopping centers, apartment buildings almost daily. Ukrainian hands are bloody for destroying a bridge. Ruskie logic can be achieved only by drinking copious amounts of strong alcohol.
“I suspect explosives on the road bridge and train deck were initiated near simultaneously using coded radio command,”
How were the explosives placed? It is unlikely that saboteurs could place them on the structures. I’m sure that the bridge is tightly guarded. Besides that, the size of detonation is huge, making the transport of the required explosives to the bridge impossible. And, such timing is highly unlikely if the explosives were placed on some sort of moving vehicles and it would serve little purpose.
I think the bridge was built to russian standards, like cutting corners to fill up the pockets of the corrupt builders of this bridge. Plus it was know to be an area of geological faults, so if it had been built to withstand an earthquake, an explosion shouldn’t have made whole sections to collapse.
The Kerch Strait has strong currents and scour at the foundations is a problem. Frankly, I doubt the bridge was going to live much longer, but getting explosives to the bridge is a serious coup that should put the fear of God in the Russians, if they even believed there is a God. Putin being a commie means he doesn’t. He simply uses the ROC for his own purposes as Stalin did.
I think now is the time to somehow continually hit the section of the bridge or repair crews. Don’t know how or even it’s feasible but now is good time to make sure it stays down.
Having looked at it previously it would have been threading a needle operation from air. I had thought about kamikaze using minisub or drones from water. I hadn’t really considered trucking something across, nor timing with a fuel laden train going by. If purposely took some blind orc eyes, determination to carry it out even at cost of one’s own life and knowing train schedule. Or did train just happen to be going across at same time the truck or vessel detonated. Footage doesn’t not appear to show air drone or rocket strike. Lots of interesting questions.
Just pondering how to further damage it thinking sound waves or Tesla’s earthquake maker would crack and shake more of it apart.