Russia’s Kerch Bridge in Crimea, a hated symbol of the Kremlin’s occupation of the southern Ukrainian peninsula, has been hit by a massive explosion on the section that carries rail traffic.
Footage from the bridge showed a fierce fire engulfing at least two train cars of a train on the bridge, accompanied by a vast plume of black smoke.
The explosion, which witnesses said could be heard from miles away, occurred around 6 a.m. Saturday as a train crossed the bridge, although it was not immediately known what caused it.
Some images appeared to show a second fire some distance from the main fire.
Later images also appeared to show that part of the road bridge that runs parallel to the train tracks had collapsed.
The bridge is both highly symbolic for Russia and an important logistical supply route for Russian forces in Crimea and Russian-occupied southern Ukraine.
Russian news service Tass said a fuel tanker was involved. “According to preliminary data, a fuel tank [railroad] The car caught fire in one of the sections of the Crimean bridge, the navigation arches are not damaged, said Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the head of the Russian occupation of Crimea.
Another Moscow-appointed official said: “A tank car is burning with fuel in one of the sections of the bridge. The shipping arches are not affected. It is too early to talk about reasons and consequences. It is being worked on to put out the fire.”
However, video footage taken from the stretch of road appeared to show fires burning in several rail trucks along the train, numbering at least half a dozen with the train stopped on the bridge.
The railway section is part of a pair of parallel bridges crossing the Kerch Strait linking Krasnodar in Russia and Crimea, which were built by Russia after its 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea.
About 12 miles (19 km) long, the road bridge was opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, and the rail bridge opened two years later.
While there appeared to be no damage to the bridge’s supporting arches, it is the latest humiliating setback for Moscow, after several weeks of battlefield reversals that have seen Ukrainian forces force a troop withdrawal Russians in eastern and southern Ukraine.
During the nine-month war in Ukraine, Russia had assumed for months that Crimea, including the Kerch Bridge, was beyond the ability of Ukrainian forces to attack. However, in the past two months, a series of explosions have hit sites in Crimea, including the Saky naval air base, amid growing confidence in Kyiv that it can retake Crimea.