Two useless after ‘explosions collapse span’ of key bridge linking Russia to Crimea
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xplosions on the Kerch Bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea have led to the collapse of 1 span, in line with native experiences.
Russian officers admited that the bridge, a key provide line for Russian troops in Ukraine, was broken in an “emergency“ situation which killed two people and injured a child.
Video shared by local media on Monday appeared to show a section of road on the bridge had split and was sloping to one side.
Sergei Aksyonov, a Russia-installed governor, said the emergency occurred on the 145th pillar of the bridge which links the Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar.
Russia’s transport ministry said that there was damage to the road on the bridge closer to the Crimean Peninsula, but there was no damage to the pillars. It did not say what caused the damage.
Ukrainian media said there had been blasts on the bridge and reports claimed that at least one span had collapsed, though this could not be confirmed.
Traffic was stopped from using the Russian-built bridge to Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
Video footage showed no traffic on the bridge.
The 19 km (12-mile) road and rail bridge has been a pride infrastructure project of President Vladimir Putin, who drove a Mercedes across the bridge in 2022 after it was repaired following an explosion.
Russia’s Grey Zone channel, a heavily followed Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner mercenary group, reported that there were two strikes on the bridge at 03:04 a.m. (0004 GMT) and 03:20 a.m.
The parents of a girl were killed and their daughter was injured in a passenger car on the bridge early on Monday, said Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in southern Russia. He did not say how the people were killed.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Odesa military administration, posted a photo on his Telegram account of what seemed to show part of the bridge broken. It was not immediately clear whether that was related to any attack.
George Barros, an analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said on Twitter that if the bridge was seriously damaged it would significantly impact Russian supply lines.
“Russia will only have one ground supply line – the coastal highway on the Sea of Azov – to sustain (or evacuate) its tens of thousands of troops in occupied Kherson & Crimea if UKR manages to degrade/destroy the bridge,” mentioned Barros.
It was not instantly clear what the incident on the bridge would imply for the UN-brokered deal that enables the secure Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain. Ukraine and Russia are among the many world’s prime grain exporters.
The UN deal is because of expire on Monday, with the final ship to journey beneath the deal leaving the port of Odesa early on Sunday, in line with maritime specialists.
The Crimean bridge was broken by an explosion final October, in an assault that the Kremlin mentioned had been orchestrated by Ukrainian safety forces. Ukraine admitted solely not directly to the assault months later.
Putin’s ally Arkady Rotenberg’s firm constructed the huge construction, which is Europe’s longest bridge. Putin has lengthy lauded the challenge, boasting at one level that Russian Tsars and Soviet leaders had dreamed of constructing it however by no means did.