In a major blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a huge explosion early Saturday severely damaged the only bridge connecting the annexed Crimean Peninsula with the Russian mainland, crimping a key supply route for Moscow’s faltering war in Ukraine.
The blast collapsed part of the roadway on the Kerch Strait road-and-rail bridge – opened by Putin himself in 2018 – images and video from the scene showed. At least three people were killed in the explosion, Russian officials said, citing preliminary information.
The exact cause of the blast at Europe’s longest bridge is yet to be confirmed. Russian officials said a truck exploded, causing Crimea-bound sections of the bridge’s roadway to fall. A subsequent fire engulfed a train of fuel tanks on a separate, adjacent rail portion of the bridge.
Putin ordered a “government commission” to examine the Kerch bridge “emergency” in Crimea, Russian state media TASS reported.
The long-term effects on the use of the bridge weren’t immediately clear. Russian officials said a limited amount of car traffic had resumed on undamaged sections of the bridge’s roadways by Saturday evening and that train services were resuming on the bridge’s railways.
But trucks were being asked to take ferries across the strait, state media reported.
The damage to the roadway appeared to be severe, with westbound lanes crippled in at least two places. Video and images from the 19-kilometer (11-mile) bridge appeared to show a portion of the roadway had fallen into the water.
An official in Crimea blamed “Ukrainian vandals” for the explosion. Some Ukrainian officials gloated over the incident without directly claiming responsibility – even announcing commemorative stamps will be made. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “the reaction of the Kyiv regime to the destruction of civilian infrastructure testifies to its terrorist nature.”