Truck owner identified
Motor traffic flows again over damaged Crimean bridge
10/08/2022 5:06 p.m
The bridge between Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula is of paramount strategic importance in the country’s war of aggression in Ukraine. After the explosion in the morning, Russian authorities reassured: car traffic is flowing again and the trains should be running again soon.
Cars and buses are allowed to drive again on the badly damaged bridge between Russia and the occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea – albeit with restrictions and in different directions. Trucks still have to cross by ferry. According to Russian information, rail traffic should also be resumed in the evening.
The detonation occurred in a truck early in the morning, the Russian National Counter-Terrorism Committee said. According to Russian sources, three people died. They were probably in a car that was in close proximity to the truck that had blown up. The detonation set fire to seven fuel trailers on a train, the committee said. Two areas of the highway on the 19-kilometer-long Kerch Bridge partially collapsed. The arch of the bridge spanning the important strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov was not damaged. According to a report by the Interfax news agency, the fire on the bridge has now been extinguished.
The bridge to Crimea, annexed by Russia in violation of international law in 2014, was opened in 2018 and is not only considered a prestige project of Russian President Vladimir Putin. They also deliver a large part of the supplies for the Russian troops in the Cherson region in southern Ukraine, which they largely occupy.
“just the beginning”
Crimea has repeatedly been the target of Ukrainian counterattacks in recent months. Among other things, an important airfield was hit. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the troops were supplied by land and sea.
The cause of the explosion is not yet clear. Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak did not claim that his country was directly responsible, but wrote on Twitter shortly after the incident became known that this was “the beginning”. Everything “illegal” must be destroyed and “everything stolen” must be returned to Ukraine. According to Russian investigators, the owner of the truck has now been identified. It is a resident of the southern Russian Krasnodar region, without naming the man. Accordingly, investigations were initiated at his residence, the documented route of the truck will be checked.
Putin instructed the government to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the incident, the Tass news agency reported. Interfax quoted Crimean Parliament Speaker Vladimir Konstantinov as saying that “Ukrainian vandals” managed to grab the Crimean bridge with “their bloody hands.” They themselves would not have created anything worth mentioning in Crimea. But now they would have damaged the stretch of road on the bridge. “Now they have something to be proud of.” However, the damage was not serious and could be repaired quickly.