Russia says three killed in Crimea bridge blast, army leadership changed

MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday said three people were killed in after a truck exploded on its bridge linking Crimea -- a symbol of its annexation of the peninsula -- without immediately blaming Ukraine.

On the same day, after Moscow suffered a series of setbacks on the battlefield that triggered unprecedented criticism of its army at home, Moscow appointed a new general to lead its Ukraine offensive.

The blast ripped through the 19-km bridge more than seven months into Moscow´s Ukraine offensive, although local authorities said it had reopened to motor traffic with vehicles subject to stringent screening.

Dramatic social media footage showed the bridge on fire with parts plunging into the water.

Russian investigators said three people were killed and that two bodies -- a man and a woman -- were pulled out of the water after the bridge had partially collapsed.

They were likely to be passengers of a car that was driving near the exploded truck and that their identities were being established, Moscow said.

It had also identified the owner of the truck as a resident of Russia´s southern Krasnodar region, saying his place of residence was being searched.

Russia said the blast -- which occurred just after 6 am local time -- set ablaze seven oil tankers transported by train and collapsed two car lanes of the giant road and rail structure.

The bridge, personally inaugurated by President Vladimir Putin in 2018, is a vital transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

It is hugely important to the Kremlin, and Moscow had maintained the bridge crossing was safe despite the fighting.

While some in Moscow hinted at Ukrainian “terrorism”, state media continued to call it an “emergency situation.”

Ukraine´s presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak earlier took to Twitter posting a picture of a long section of the bridge half-submerged.

“Crimea, the bridge, the beginning,” he wrote.

“Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.”

The Ukrainian post office announced it was preparing to print stamps showing the “Crimean bridge -- or more precisely, what remains of it”.

The Kremlin´s spokesman said Putin had ordered a commission to be set up to look into the blast on the bridge which is hugely symbolic and logistically crucial for Moscow.

Officials in Moscow stopped short of blaming Kyiv. But a Russian-installed official in Crimea pointed the finger at “Ukrainian vandals.” Another in the neighbouring Kherson region said repairs could “take two months”.

And the spokeswoman of Russia´s foreign ministry said that Kyiv´s reaction to the blasts showed its “terrorist nature.”