Crimea Bridge Casualties - The Russian government has ordered contractors to complete repairs to the main bridge connecting Russia's annexed Crimea by July 2023.
The bridge was damaged in Saturday's explosion, which officials said killed at least three people.
Crimea Bridge Casualties
The 19 km (12 mi) bridge, the longest in Europe, is the main supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine, but heavy vehicles cannot use it.
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The explosion caused the middle part of one of the two carriageways of the bridge to fall into the sea, and the railway line was also damaged.
Currently, trucks are forced to queue for the ferry, which can take several days.
A document on the Russian government's website says Nizhneangarsktransstroy, charged with "designing and restoring damaged elements of the transport and engineering infrastructure of the Crimean bridge," has been appointed as the sole contractor.
Establishes a "July 1, 2023 deadline for public procurement of works."
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The bridge was opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, four years after Russia annexed Crimea.
Connecting eastern Crimea with the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia via the Kerch Strait, it is seen as a showpiece project of Putin's government.
The attack was followed by widespread celebrations in Ukraine, but the government of Kiev said it was not involved.
Moscow blamed the massive Russian airstrikes on Monday on cities across Ukraine, killing civilians and damaging infrastructure, in response to the bridge attack. A major bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia has been partially destroyed by a truck explosion, threatening a key supply route for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, Russian media reported.
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The speaker of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, called it an "act of war" as the country's Investigative Committee on Saturday "opened a criminal case in connection with the incident on the Crimean bridge", where the truck was blown up.
"According to preliminary information, this morning a truck was detonated on the road section of the Crimean bridge from the side of the Taman peninsula, as a result of which seven fuel tanks on a train going to the Crimean peninsula caught fire," the committee said in a statement. .
People look at fuel tanks at the Kerch bridge over the Kerch Strait, Crimea, October 8, 2022 [Reuters]
Earlier, the Russian Investigative Committee reported that three people were found dead in a truck explosion.
Crimean Bridge Explosion
"It is assumed that they may be passengers of a car that was near the exploded truck. So far, the bodies of two people who died in the water, one man and one woman, have been exhumed and their identities are being ascertained," the committee said in a statement.
Investigators have also identified the truck and its owner, who is registered in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, and are looking for his whereabouts, he added.
According to officials, Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed of the blast and ordered the creation of a government commission to deal with the emergency.
In a decree issued hours after the explosion, Putin said the Federal Security Service (FSB) would be responsible for strengthening the bridge's security, as well as the infrastructure that supplies the peninsula with electricity and natural gas, according to the news agency. Fax printing.
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Ukrainian authorities celebrated the incident but did not claim responsibility, with the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, posting on social media a video of a burning bridge and a video of Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President." , a reference to Putin's 70th birthday on Friday.
"It should be noted that according to all indications, the exploded truck entered the bridge from the Russian side. Therefore, the answers should be sought from Russia," he said in the comments of the presidential office.
At the same time, the editor-in-chief of the Swiss Military Review, Alexander Votravers, questioned whether a truck was behind the explosion and said that a truck carrying explosives "would not have caused so much damage" if no explosives had been planted. bridge.
"I think we have to take with a grain of salt the story they're telling about how this truck got there and suddenly did all this damage," he told Al Jazeera.
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"If the two explanations are more realistic: one could be a laser-guided bomb of at least 125 kilograms, and the other could be sabotage by special forces or guerrillas, I think that's something that needs to be investigated."
"The Russians are still trying to understand what happened," Wall said, adding that the bridge is a key supply line between mainland Russia and Crimea.
Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, said there was "joy" in Ukraine after the incident.
"This affects the reputation of Vladimir Putin. The image of Vladimir Putin as a ruler is surprising. "I think that under the bravery of Ukraine at the moment there may be a concern about how it will respond to this," he added.
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A helicopter dropped water to extinguish fuel tanks near damaged sections of the Kerch Bridge in the Kerch Strait, Crimea. [Reuters]
"It also creates a major headache for the Russians in securing the southern Ukrainian front, as the [Russian] army is now mainly supplied by railway networks, and the main railway network south of the front crosses Crimea via the Kerch Bridge. Challands said.
According to him, now the only other railway route passes through the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, which is currently 30-40 kilometers away from the front.
TASS news agency also reported about the fire. The explosion on the road and railway bridge was reported by Ukrainian media at approximately 6:00 am (03:00 GMT).
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A fire breaks out at the Kerch Bridge in the Kerch Strait at dawn, Crimea, October 8, 2022 [Reuters]
After Moscow annexed Crimea to Ukraine in 2014, Putin opened the road and rail bridge in 2018.
Moscow authorities promised to find the culprits, but immediately stopped blaming Kiev, even though an official pointed the finger at "Ukrainian vandals" in the Russian-occupied Crimea.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said Russian troops in southern Ukraine were receiving much-needed supplies through a land corridor along the Sea of Azov and by sea. The Russian Ministry of Energy said that Crimea has enough fuel for 15 days.
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Russia's transport network said on Saturday that it was allowed to resume rail traffic on the Kerch bridge.
The events in Crimea came hours after explosions in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday morning, sending smoke billowing into the sky and triggering a series of secondary explosions.
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said via Telegram that the early morning explosions were the result of rocket attacks in the city center.
According to him, the explosions caused a fire in one of the city's medical institutions and a non-residential building. There is currently no information about the injured.
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In September, Kyiv and the West announced the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia provinces.
In recent weeks, the Ukrainian army has pushed back Russian forces across the front line in the south and east, including parts of Donetsk. Western weapons helped Ukrainian forces recapture more territory last month than Russian forces have captured in five months.
On Saturday, Putin announced that Air Force Gen. Sergei Surovikin would lead the invasion of Ukraine, marking the first time a military chief has been appointed to oversee the entire effort, which Moscow calls a "special military operation." .This is a satellite image. Maxar Technologies shows damage to the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Crimean Peninsula with Russia across the strait between the Black and Azov seas, and burning train cars on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022 [AP Photo via Maxar Technologies]
Hours after a truck was blown up and partially destroyed, traffic resumed on the main road and rail bridge linking Russia and Crimea, and an investigation into who was behind the attack is underway.
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Three people were killed, several tankers set on fire and two lanes of traffic collapsed in an explosion on the 19 km (12 mile) Kerch bridge early Saturday, Russian investigators said.
The bridge, a symbol of the Kremlin's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, is a vital supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine. It was opened in 2018 by Russian President Vladimir Putin with great fanfare.
Putin on Saturday ordered an investigation and ordered increased security of the bridge and infrastructure that supplies Crimea with electricity and natural gas.
The Kerch Bridge bombing came a day after Putin's 70th birthday and coincided with Russia's appointment of General Sergei Surovykin to lead the war in Ukraine.
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The blast drew cheers from Ukrainians and others on social media, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi did not directly comment on it.
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