Kerch bridge partially destroyed in an alleged suicide attack by Ukraine

Crimea, Oct 08: Russian anti-terrorism officials said that a large fire on the bridge linking Russia and Crimea was caused by an exploding truck. The fire has now been extinguished, Russian emergency services told Interfax agency. While traffic on the bridge is blocked and trains are delayed, the ferry service will start operating soon on Saturday.

 

 

 

The blast "set fire to seven oil tankers being carried by rail to Crimea," Russian news agencies cited the national anti-terrorism committee as saying. Russia has launched a criminal probe into the event.

 

 

 

"According to preliminary information a fuel tank was on fire on one of the sections of the Crimean bridge, the shipping arches are not damaged," RIA reported citing a local official. The tank was being pulled by a train. There have been no deaths or injuries reported so far. According to the reports, the road running along that part of the bridge was also severely damaged. The Crimean city of Simferopol announced that they were considering installing a ferry connection. Crimean parliament head Vladimir Konstantinov said the bridge was damaged by "Ukrainian vandals." "They now have something to be proud of: for 23 years of their economic management they did not manage to build anything worthy of attention in Crimea, but they managed to damage the floor of the Russian bridge," he added on his Telegram channel. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the creation of a committee, to probe into the causes of the explosion. The committee said it had sent detectives to the scene. Dramatic videos on social media showed the giant bridge on fire and partially collapsing into the sea. The Kerch bridge is 19 kilometers long (11.8 miles) and was built by Russia after it declared Crimea to be Russian territory in 2014. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday approved additional emergency funding of $1.3 billion (€1.33 billion), to help Ukraine's economy. The funding comes from a new emergency lending program and will help Ukraine curb financial losses, including the loss of grain export revenues.

 

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"The scale and intensity of Russia's war against Ukraine that started more than seven months ago have caused tremendous human suffering and economic pain," the IMF said. The organization also praised Ukraine's government for maintaining financial stability during a challenging period. The IMF said the Ukrainian economy is forecast to contract by 35% in 2022.