The Kremlin boss announces retaliation for the attack on the Crimean bridge.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened Ukraine with military retaliation for an attack on the bridge to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. “Of course there will be an answer from Russia,” said the head of the Kremlin at a meeting with the Russian leadership on Monday evening in Moscow. Ukraine is responsible for the crime. The Ministry of Defense is preparing proposals for a response, the state news agency Tass quoted the president as saying.
The foundation of the bridge to Crimea was not damaged by the explosions on Monday morning, reported Deputy Prime Minister Marat Chusnullin. Part of the roadway sagged, as photos show. That piece of concrete needs to be replaced, Chusnullin said. He promised that the motorway bridge would be fully restored by November.
According to the information, the parallel railway bridge was not damaged. The train traffic is running according to the timetable, it said. Car traffic was also resumed on Tuesday night – with restrictions. According to official information, after a block on Monday morning, the ferries between the peninsula annexed in 2014 and the Russian mainland also ran again.
Putin’s prestige project was damaged by explosions during the night, the second such attack since the beginning of the Ukraine war. According to Russian sources, two people died. The Kremlin chief described the damage to the bridge from the Russian mainland to the Ukrainian peninsula, which was annexed in 2014, as an “act of terrorists”.
It was the second attack on the “strategically important transport object” after October 2022. He now awaits suggestions on how to ensure the safety of the structure, adding that repair work should begin promptly. Chusnullin said part of the road on the bridge was completely destroyed and needs to be restored. There is no damage to the pylons of the bridge, i.e. the towering components.
Putin personally inaugurated the bridge in 2018
According to Russian information, unmanned remote-controlled boats detonated explosives on the building on Monday morning. As a result, part of the roadway for cars sagged, as photos show. The foundation of the bridge was not damaged, Chusnullin reported.
Two dead after explosion on Crimean bridge
The automobile and railway bridge spans the strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. According to Russian information, the train route was not damaged in the attack.
Russia uses the bridge to deliver a large part of the supplies for its troops in the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson, which they largely occupy. Video shared by local media showed a section of road split in two, leaning to one side.
Putin personally inaugurated the bridge in 2018, four years after Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula. On Monday he spoke on television about a senseless and cruel act by the government in Kiev. The bridge had not been used to supply the armed forces for months.
Russian Foreign Ministry: US and UK helped
Before the television appearance, a spokeswoman for the State Department said help for the attack had come from the United States and Great Britain. “The attack on the Crimean Bridge today was perpetrated by the regime in Kiev. This regime is a terrorist one and has all the hallmarks of an internationally organized criminal gang.”
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There were also hints from Ukraine itself that it could be behind it. After the military initially said it could be a Russian provocation, three Ukrainian media reported that the incident was caused by the Ukrainian domestic secret service SBU and the Navy. All three refer to at least one unspecified insider. Drones were used.
A spokesman for the SBU referred to the news service RBC Ukraine to earlier statements by SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk that in a war it is justified to cut off enemy supply routes.
In October 2022 there was a first explosion on the bridge, which was largely destroyed. At that time, too, Russia blamed Ukraine. She only indirectly admitted this months later. After the partial repairs, Putin drove across the 19-kilometer bridge in a Mercedes in December.
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