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| Photo: AFP/Getty Images |
Russian rockets slammed into the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight as Moscow raced to restore transportation links to Crimea after a major explosion damaged the bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia.
The damage to the 12-mile bridge, critical for moving arms, ammunition and other military supplies, has the potential to hurt Moscow’s war effort in southern Ukraine, where Russian forces are struggling to hold off a Ukrainian offensive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his first public comments on the incident, blamed Ukraine and called it a “terrorist attack” aimed at civilian infrastructure.
“Its plotters, perpetrators, and masterminds are the Ukrainian security services,” Mr. Putin said Sunday in a televised recording of a meeting with his top federal investigative official.
Kyiv didn’t claim responsibility for the attack, though senior Ukrainian officials celebrated it on social media.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, responded to Mr. Putin’s accusation on Twitter, calling it cynical and pointing to Russia’s attack on residential areas of Zaporizhzhia.
“There is only one terrorist state here and the whole world knows who it is,” he said in the tweet.
Targeting the bridge would follow a game plan that Ukraine’s military has used effectively in recent months: disrupting Russian forces’ rear supply lines to deplete their strength and demoralize them before pushing ahead with an assault. --->READ MORE HERE
The U.K. Defense Ministry said on Oct. 9 that two of the four roadway lanes collapsed in several places. The Ministry added that extent of the damage on the bridge's rail crossing is unclear, but "any serious disruption to its capacity will highly likely have a significant impact on Russia's already strained ability to sustain its forces in southern Ukraine."
A fire broke out at the Crimean Bridge — the strategic bridge that connects Russia with the occupied Crimea peninsula — at around 7 a.m. on Oct. 8. Eyewitnesses' photos and videos of the fiercely burning Crimean Bridge showed that a massive explosion hit it on the span that carries railway traffic.
Following the explosion, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukraine's President's Office, wrote on Twitter that "everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be returned."
According to Russia, a truck detonated, leading to a fire that spread onto a tanker train.
"According to preliminary information, a truck was blown up, which resulted in the ignition of seven fuel tanks of a train heading towards the Crimean Peninsula. As a result, two car lanes partially collapsed," wrote Russian Prosecutor's Office. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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