Two sections of road bridge had partially collapsed
\nLONDON
\nA blast on the strategic road-and-rail bridge linking Russia and the Crimea peninsula on Saturday brought down sections of road taking traffic in one direction, prompting gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no direct claim of responsibility.
\nRussia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the 19-km (12-mile) bridge linking it to Russia\u2019s transport network was opened with great fanfare by President Vladimir Putin four years later.
\nIt now represents a crucial supply route for the Russian forces who have taken control of most of southern Ukraine\u2019s Kherson region.
\nThe Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said on social media that the blast occurred at 6:07 a.m. (0307 GMT) in a freight truck, and caused seven fuel tanker wagons to catch fire on a train heading for the peninsula.
\nIt said two sections of road bridge had partially collapsed, but that the arch spanning the Kerch Strait, the waterway through which ships travel between the Black Sea and Azov Sea, was not damaged.
\nSergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor of Crimea, said on social media that the road bridge was still intact in one direction, although traffic was suspended while the damage was assessed.
\nImages showed thick smoke pouring from part of the bridge.
\nLater, the Emergency Ministry said the fire had been extinguished, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
\nA Ukrainian presidential adviser posted a message on Twitter saying the incident was just \u201cthe beginning\u201d but stopped short of saying Ukrainian forces were responsible for the blast.
\n\u201cEverything illegal must be destroyed, everything that is stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,\u201d Mykhailo Podolyak wrote.
\nPutin has instructed the government to create a state commission to investigate the incident, TASS news agency reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
\nInterfax quoted the chairman of the Crimean republic\u2019s State Council, Vladimir Konstantinov, as saying that \u201cUkrainian vandals managed to reach for the Crimean bridge with their bloody hands\u201d.
\n\u201cThey now have something to be proud of,\u201d he said. \u201cIn their 23 years of economic activity they failed to build anything worthy of attention in Crimea, but (now) they have managed to damage the roadway of the Russian bridge.\u201d
\nKonstantinov said the damage was \u201cnot of a severe nature\u201d and would be quickly repaired.
\nThe head of Ukraine\u2019s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov posted a video of the burning bridge on social media alongside a video of Marilyn Monroe singing \u201cHappy birthday, Mr President\u201d.
\nPutin turned 70 on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two sections of road bridge had partially collapsed LONDON A blast on the strategic road-and-rail bridge linking Russia and the Crimea peninsula on Saturday brought down sections of road taking traffic in one direction, prompting gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no direct claim of responsibility. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-288274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n