Russia accused Ukraine on Tuesday of being the cause of explosions that caused last weekend the collapse of two bridges and trains accidents that made seven dead And more than a hundred injured, including children.
“Undoubtedly, the terrorists, acting on the orders of the kyiv regime, have planned everything with maximum precision so that their explosions affect hundreds of civilians,” the Russian investigation committee said in charge of the main criminal investigations, in a statement.
The Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) claimed a new attack on the Crimea bridge on Tuesday, which links the peninsula annexed by Moscow to the Russian territory, and has already been targeted by kyiv since the 2022 invasion.
Substantial damage on the Crimean deck No victim
“SBU agents have undermined the pillars of this illegal installation. And today, without making a civilian victim, the first explosive device was activated at 4:44 (1:44 GMT) in the morning! “, Haded the SBU in a press release.
He assured that he had inflicted “severe damage” with “more than a ton of TNT” on “underwater support pillars” of the structure which, according to the SBU, is in a “state of emergency”.
The SBU also published a video, not authenticated, showing an underwater explosion near a pillar of the bridge. For the time being, the real scale of destruction is however uncertain.
Traffic on the bridge was temporarily closed between 6 am (3 hours GMT) in the morning and 9 am (6 hours GMT) on Tuesday, the official account of the work manager said on Telegram, without mentioning the reason for this suspension of around three hours.
A symbolic work of the Russian annexation
Inaugurated in 2018the Crimean Bridge, a large 19 km long work, is one of the symbols of the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014 for the Kremlin.
After the start of the large -scale invasion against Ukraine in February 2022, he was damaged twice by attacks claimed by Kiev: in October 2022 with a trapped truck et In July 2023 with naval drones.
Since then, the Russian authorities have greatly reinforced the surveillance of this key work which notably allows to send troops and military equipment to annexed Crimea.
