Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian investigative authorities identified the explosion of the Crimean Bridge (Kerch Strait Bridge) as an act of a Ukrainian special agency and called it an act of terrorism. Tensions between the two countries are mounting as Russia has announced it will take direct retaliation against Ukraine for the incident.
At dawn on 8 (local time), a truck bomb exploded in the car passage area of the Crimean bridge and the tankers of the freight train passing by the railway caught fire, destroying part of the bridge. A total of three people would have died in this accident. The Crimean Bridge, inaugurated in 2018, connects the Crimean Peninsula, occupied by Russia since 2014, and the Russian mainland.
At present, the Ukrainian government and military authorities have not commented on the incident.
The Russian Kremlin released a video of Putin receiving a report from Alexander Vastrykin, chairman of the Investigative Committee, on the 9th. In the video, Putin said: “The planners, those who carried out the explosion and those who supported it. are Ukrainian special agencies.
Earlier, President Vastrikin told Putin that the incident was “an act of terror organized by a Ukrainian special agency” and that “the purpose of the terrorist attack was to destroy a large civil infrastructure that is very important to the Russian Federation. “. According to Vastrikin, the truck that detonated the bomb reached the Crimean Bridge through Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Russian North Ossetia and Krasnodar.
According to the Russian state news agency Sputnik, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said in an interview with a journalist from the Donbas region: “It is Ukraine, a failed country that has committed this crime ( the Crimean bridge “It is an act of terror and destruction. Russia’s only response to this crime is to directly destroy the terrorists,” he said. He announced a plan of retaliation directed against Ukraine.
He added that the mobilization order, which had not been implemented in Russia for over 80 years, is being implemented and national unity is being achieved.
Russian state news agency Rianovosti reported that Putin will hold a security meeting on the 10th. Retaliatory measures against Ukraine are expected to be discussed in connection with the Crimean bridge explosion.
Kim Soo-hyun, Hankyung.com reporter [email protected]
