Kremlin leaders have announced retaliation for the Crimean bridge attack.
(Photo: Reuters)
Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened Ukraine with military retaliation for the attack on a bridge on the Black Sea peninsula in Crimea. “Of course Russia will give an answer,” the Kremlin leader said during a meeting with the Russian leader in Moscow on Monday night. Ukraine is responsible for the crime. The state news agency TASS quoted the president as saying that the Ministry of Defense was preparing to respond to the proposal.
Car traffic on the strategically important bridge between Crimea and mainland Russia will remain suspended until mid-September, according to the Moscow government. Traffic will then be released again in one direction, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Chusnurin said in a televised conversation with President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Traffic will resume in both directions by November 1.
Putin’s prestige project was damaged by an explosion overnight, the second such attack since the war in Ukraine began. According to Russian sources, two people died. Kremlin leaders have described the damage to the bridge between mainland Russia and the Ukrainian peninsula, which was annexed in 2014, as a “terrorist act”.
This is the second attack on a “strategicly important transportation target” after October 2022. He is now awaiting advice on how to make the structure safe, adding that restoration work should begin immediately.
Part of the road on the bridge was completely destroyed and needs to be repaired, Chusnurin said. The bridge’s pylons, or tall members, were not damaged.
Putin personally inaugurated the bridge in 2018
On Monday morning, an unmanned remote-controlled boat detonated explosives on the building, according to Russian sources. As a result, as shown in the picture, part of the car lane sags. Chusnurin reported that the foundations of the bridge were not damaged.
Explosion on Crimea bridge kills two
The car and rail bridge spans the strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. According to Russian sources, the train line was not damaged in the attack.
Russia uses the bridge to transport most of its supplies to its troops stationed in the Chersson region of southern Ukraine, which is largely occupied by Russian troops. Video shared by local media showed a section of road split in two and slope to one side.
Putin himself inaugurated the bridge in 2018, four years after Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula. On Monday, he spoke on television about the stupid and cruel behavior of the Kiev government. The bridge has not been used to resupply the armed forces for several months.
Russian Foreign Ministry: The United States and Britain provide help
Before the televised appearance, a US State Department spokesman said the US and UK had helped in the attack. “Today’s attack on the Crimean bridge was the work of the Kiev regime. This regime is a terrorist regime with all the hallmarks of an international organized crime group.”
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Ukraine itself has suggested that it may be behind it. After the military initially said it might have been a Russian provocation, three Ukrainian media outlets reported that the incident was caused by Ukraine’s domestic secret service, the SBU, and the navy. All three refer to at least one unspecified insider. Drones were used.
A spokesman for the SBU referred to the RBC Ukraine news agency the earlier statement of SBU head Vasyl Malyuk that it was justified to cut off the enemy’s supply routes during a war.
In October 2022, the first explosion on the bridge destroyed most of the bridge. At the time, Russia also blamed Ukraine. It took months for her to admit it indirectly. After some repairs were completed, Putin drove a Mercedes across the 19-kilometer bridge in December.
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