According to preliminary data from the adviser to the Governor of Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, there have been no injuries or deaths.
A truck exploded on the Crimean bridge, which caused the fire of seven fuel tanks of a train that moved in the direction of the annexed Ukrainian peninsula and partially damaged the infrastructure, according to the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC). ).
“Today at 03.07 GMT on the automobile part of the Crimean bridge from the side of the Taman Peninsula (opposite the Kerch Peninsula), a truck exploded, causing seven fuel tanks of a train to catch fire. was moving in the direction of the Crimean peninsula,” the Committee said, according to the TASS agency
According to this Russian agency, “there was a partial collapse of two sections of the automobile part of the bridge,” he said. The arch over the navigable part was not damaged.
The NAC stressed that the circumstances of the explosion are being clarified.
According to preliminary data from the adviser to the Governor of Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, there have been no injuries or deaths.
Rail and car traffic have been suspended on the bridge and work has started to launch a ferry service across the Kerch Strait, according to Acting Transport Minister Nikolai Lukahsneko, according to TASS.
Navigation in the strait has not been interrupted at the moment, assured the Federal Agency for Maritime Transport and Inland Waters (Rosmorrechflot).
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a government commission, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.
“In connection with the emergency at the Crimean bridge, Vladimir Putin received reports from Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov, and Transport Minister Gennadi Saveliev, as well as from heads of law enforcement agencies,” he said, according to the RIA Nóvosti news agency.
He explained that Putin instructed the prime minister to set up a commission “to find out the causes of the incident and eliminate the consequences as soon as possible.”
It will also include the heads of the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea, representatives of the National Guard, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Saveliev and Kurenkov left for the scene, Peskov added.
The adviser to the Governor of Crimea in turn warned that “many false enemy information” about the incident is circulating, so he asked only to pay attention to “official information”.
For the Kremlin, an attack on the Crimean bridge would be a red line that would not allow it to pass without a response, as they have repeated on several occasions from the Presidency and the Ministry of Defense.
In May 2018, Putin inaugurated the automobile section of the Crimean bridge over the Kerch Strait, the longest in Europe with its 19 kilometers, in order to break the isolation of the peninsula.
At the end of 2019, the railway section over the bridge was also inaugurated, condemned by both Ukraine and the West, which continue to consider the peninsula part of Ukrainian territory.