29-Mar-2024  Srinagar booked.net

World

Key Bridge Connecting Annexed-Crimea With Russia Damages

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After Russia declared four regions of Ukraine as Russian territories followed by a referendum and the counter offensive gains achieved by Ukraine, a key bridge connecting Russian-annexed Crimea with the mainland Russia has been damaged by an explosion on Saturday.

Russia RIA state news agency said says a fuel tank was set on fire early on Saturday on the Kerch bridge in Crimea, which links the peninsula to mainland Russia and three people have been found dead so far.

Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that a truck bomb caused seven railway cars carrying fuel to catch fire, resulting in a “partial collapse of two sections of the bridge.” A man and a woman who were riding in a vehicle across the bridge were killed by the explosion and their bodies were recovered, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. It didn’t provide details on the third victim.

However, Ukraine media said that it was an explosion.

The Kerch Bridge is a strategic supply line for the Russian troops fighting in eastern Ukraine.

The speaker of Crimea’s Russia-backed regional parliament immediately accused Ukraine but the Ukrainian officials have repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge and some lauded the attack, but Kyiv stopped short of claiming responsibility.

The 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov was opened in 2018 by Putin and it is the longest bridge in Europe.

The bridge provided an essential link to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.