Photo: Getty Images
At least three people were killed when a truck exploded on a bridge that connects Crimea to Russia. The blast caused extensive damage to the Kerch Strait Bridge, which serves as a critical supply line for Russian forces in Ukraine.
The 12-mile, $3.6 billion bridge is the longest in Europe and opened in 2018, four years after Russia annexed Crimea.
Russia's Investigative Committee said that the explosion "resulted in the ignition of seven fuel tanks of a train heading towards the Crimean Peninsula."
The truck was registered to a man who lives in southern Russia. Investigators have searched his home and are trying to track the truck's route. They are also trying to determine how the truck managed to get past state-of-the-art explosive checks that have been put in place on both sides of the bridge.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor of Crimea, said that the bridge has been closed to traffic while engineers assess the damage. He said that repairs would begin immediately but would not provide a timetable for how long the work will take.
Ukrainian officials have not taken credit for the bombing, but several have praised the attack on social media.
"Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled," Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on Twitter.