A powerful explosion, which Russian authorities blamed on a truck bomb, damaged the Crimean bridge on Saturday morning, the road and rail link linking Russia to the peninsula, which was built in 2014.
By AFP
LRussian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday accused Kyiv of committing an “act of terrorism” by orchestrating an explosion that partially destroyed the Crimean bridge linking Russia with the annexed peninsula on Saturday.
“Criminals, artists and sponsors are the Ukrainian secret services,” Putin summed up after a meeting with the head of the Russian intelligence service, in a video released by the Kremlin. “There is no doubt that this was a terrorist act aimed at destroying critical Russian civilian infrastructure,” the Russian president added.
It was Vladimir Putin’s first reaction to the blast that erupted early Saturday morning as his forces in Ukraine were in trouble.
The Russian president will convene the Security Council on Monday, the Kremlin said.
Zelensky teases
The Ukrainian military and special services (SBU) in Kiev have neither confirmed nor denied their involvement, and President Volodymyr Zelensky only joked in a video about Saturday’s “cloudy” weather in Crimea — the possibility of smoke from the fires — “despite the fact that it was hot there, too.”
In the same video, Ukraine promised a Crimea “without aggressors”, backed by the majority of the international community and the United Nations, which never accepted the annexation following Moscow’s 2014 “referendum” on the peninsula. was controversial.
On Sunday, he responded by branding the Russian military “terrorists” after an attack on apartment buildings in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia reportedly killed 12 to 17 people, three days after earlier bombings there. .
The final report by the Zaporizhia regional administration stated that 13 people, including women and children, were killed and 60 injured.
“No feeling. Absolute evil. Extremists and barbarians. From the one who gave this order to the one who carries it out. Everyone is responsible. Before the law and before the people,” the Ukrainian president wrote on his Telegram account.
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”