Section of a bridge in Crimea damages due to explosion, says Russian authorities

An explosion caused the partial collapse of a Kerch bridge that was linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia on Saturday. Russian authorities said that a truck bomb has caused a fire and the collapse of a section of a bridge in which three people died, as a result of the explosion. Russian President Putin was informed about the explosion and he ordered the creation of a government panel to deal with the emergency.

The 19-kilometer bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov is the longest in Europe. The Kerch road and rail bridge are not only strategically important but the only bridge linking the Russian mainland to the Crimean Peninsula.

The bridge is symbolically important as it was built by Russia after it annexed Crimea in 2014. The road and railway bridges are vital links in Russia’s supply chain. Without them, Moscow will find it even harder to send troops and equipment to repel Ukraine’s offensive north of Kherson. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said, Russian troops fighting in the Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia regions of southern Ukraine could receive all the supplies they needed via existing land and sea corridors.