Russians say “foreigners helped” Ukrainian special forces before the explosion on the Crimean bridge – VG

Updated less than 30 minutes ago

The Crimea Bridge, which is the road link between Russia and the adjoining Crimean peninsula, is one of Putin’s prestige projects. It partially collapsed after a powerful explosion on Saturday morning.

– Weakening the Crimean bridge is a terrorist attack aimed at destroying Russia’s critical infrastructure, Putin said Sunday evening, according to the state-controlled NTV.

The Russians now suggest it was a truck that exploded on the Crimean bridge. According to Aleksandr Bastrykin, head of the Russian investigative committee, the truck must have passed through Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar in southern Russia before crossing the bridge.

Bastrykin also claims that Russian citizens along with foreigners helped Ukrainian special forces prepare for the attack.

Partially reopened

On Saturday evening the Russian authorities announced that the bridge is partially reopened for limited car and rail traffic after the blast, according to Reuters. Trucks are currently being ferried, while the Russians say rail traffic is “back on track” Sunday evening.

The FSB checks

President Vladimir Putin has ordered the FSB intelligence service to take over security on the Crimean bridge after Saturday’s violent blast.

In a decree issued Saturday evening, Putin writes that the FSB “has the power to organize and coordinate measures to protect the transport route across the Kerch Strait”.

At the moment, traffic only passes on certain parts of the bridge.

Indicates sabotage

– It must be a well-planned sabotage operation that manages to destroy both railway lines and roads. Here, the explosive charges must be placed on support beams in several places. It is very likely that Ukrainian special forces are behind it, Lieutenant Colonel Palle Ydstebø, a land warfare expert at the Swedish Military Academy, told the VG yesterday.

Another theory, which one The Russian authorities soon hintedis that a truck full of explosives caused the explosion.

– According to preliminary information, this morning a truck exploded on the automobile section of the Crimean Bridge on the Taman side, causing the ignition of seven fuel tanks on a freight train bound for the Crimean peninsula. As a result, two car bays partially collapsed, Svetlana Petrenko of the Russian investigative committee said in a statement.