A truck bomb caused the partial collapse of the sole bridge connecting the recently annexed Crimean peninsula with the rest of Russia on Saturday.
According to Russian authorities, the fireball killed at least three people.
The Ministry of Transport cleared rail traffic shortly afterward and OK'd restricted road traffic hours later.
Kyiv stopped short of claiming responsibility for the attack, but Ukrainian officials reacted positively when the news broke. The 12-mile bridge is the main artery across the Kerch Peninsula to Russian forces in Crimea and Southern Ukraine.
Within hours of the attack, Russian leader Vladimir Putin issued a decree calling for tighter security for the bridge and energy supplies to Crimea. Putin has put the FSB security service in charge of strengthening those defenses.
The New York Times has more:
By Saturday evening, the railroad section of the bridge had undergone repairs and a train with 15 cars had successfully crossed the span, according to a Russian state news agency, Tass. Car traffic had also resumed on the undamaged side of the bridge, the head of Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, said in a post on Telegram.
Even so, Russian officials and hard-line military bloggers were already calling for revenge, with one member of Crimea's Parliament warning that anything less than an “extremely harsh” response would show weakness.
The explosion is emblematic of a Russian military in disarray. Russian forces were unable to protect the bridge, despite its centrality to the Russian war effort, its personal importance to Mr. Putin and its potent symbolism as the literal connection between Russia and Crimea.
Any serious impediment to traffic on the bridge could have a profound effect on Russia's ability to wage war in southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting an increasingly effective counteroffensive.
READ NEXT: Is US Preparing for Nuclear ‘Armageddon' With Russia Over Ukraine? >>
So all the articles I read about it being blown up, by conservative and liberal media were all lies. And people tell me to support Conservatives? What’s the difference?
So the bridge was not blown up? Why would conservative and liberal media lie to us? Were the videos just special effects? I think it might be better if you don’t vote at all.
I feel sorry for any person who actually believes what our current news media broadcast’s as real news. Maybe 50 years ago the news was generated by real current events but today news is manufactured for somebody to gain something. News use to be a valuable commodity because it was reality. When fake news scammers flooded that commodity with fake news for profit, it was like flooding a currency with fake money. News lost most of its preexisting value and anyone who just believes what the news media broadcasts can expect to be injured by fake news.
Weren’t the dimocraps bidophiles campaigning on worries and claims that President Trump would get us into WW111??? SSOOOO, NOW! BRANDON Is the one to worry about. If President Trump was in we wouldn’t have seen Ukraine being invaded, but every chemical and gain of function lab safely and PERMANENTLY SHUT DOWN. WE WOULD STILL HAVE OUR $60 BILLION + DOLLARS to pay for protecting ALL OUR SCHOOLS !!!!!!!!
I watched this video when it first happened it’s been spliced and the part where the explosion took place showed that the explosion happened from underneath the bridge catching the truck right before the the flash of flames. It was very obvious that the truck was not the reason for the explosion there was a brief moment that you could see the truck and that the reason for the explosion came from under the truck. I smell something fishy going on once again.
Convenient that the train running along that bridge looks as if it’s hauling oil.