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VLADIMIR Putin’s prized bridge linking Russia to Crimea has left been smoking and partially collapsed after a massive bomb blast by allegedly triggered by Ukrainian special forces.
The much hated Kerch Bridge exploded in a fireball early on Saturday, killing three people, in what’s being dubbed a major blow to Putin war efforts.
The shock explosion – which comes just a day after Putin’s birthday – blew out a section of a road bridge – which runs parallel to a railway line – collapsing it into the Black Sea.
The bridge being out of action will seriously hit Putin’s supply routes to Russian troops in under-fire Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukrainian law enforcement has suggested the attack was carried out by the country’s elite secret service, the SBU, which has refused to comment on the claim, according to local outlet, Pravda.
Meanwhile, Moscow has said three people died in the explosion and that rescue crews fished out two unidentified bodies from the water.
A defiant Kremlin said it would restart rail transport by 8pm tonight.
This is a huge hit to Putin’s prestige, who staked his reputation on keeping the peninsula safe from Ukrainian attack and an utter embarrassment for Russians who bragged about having 20 different ways of protecting the bridge, including military dolphins.
Both the rail and road bridges are hated symbols of Russia’s occupation of Crimea and have been key supply routes through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Striking it would be both a symbolic and strategic move on Ukraine’s part.
Extraordinary footage from the scene shows a train – allegedly carrying fuel – engulfed in flames and the bridge’s foundations buckling under the sheer force of the fire.
Witnesses reported hearing explosions at around 6am local time which could be heard from miles away.
And one clip showed the moment the Crimean bridge was rocked by at least one giant explosion.
The clip suggests a truck exploded while on the road section of the bridge as it drove towards Kerch in Crimea.
Russia forcibly took control of Crimea in 2014 and built what is still the longest bridge Moscow has ever constructed four years later.
The railway span is part of a pair of parallel bridges, crossing the Kerch Strait linking Krasnodar in Russia and Crimea.
Some 11 miles long, the road bridge was opened by Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2018, with the railway bridge opening two years later.
Russian sources speculate on an underwater drone being responsible for the attack on the Crimean Bridge – long seen as a prize target by the Ukrainians.
A former British army explosives expert said the incident “is a masterpiece of clandestine sabotage”, according to the BBC.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to President Zelensky, described the explosion as “the beginning”, adding that “everything illegal must be destroyed”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense shared a hilarious rebuke on Twitter.
“The guided missile cruiser Moskva and the Kerch Bridge – two notorious symbols of Russian power in Ukrainian Crimea – have gone down. What’s next in line, Russkies?” it wrote.
The government of Ukraine’s official account taunted: “Sick burn.”
Shocked pro-Kremlin war reporter Andrey Rudenko said: “What kind of power did the explosion have to for a span of the bridge to go under water?
“It is quite possible to assume that the main explosion was underwater.
“At the beginning of the year, there were reports that the West had supplied Ukraine with underwater kamikaze drones.”
Yuri Podolyaka, a popular pro-Rus blogger, said: “It looks like this is the prelude to the main strike of the Ukrainians in the south.
“If over the next few days Ukraine does not plunge into darkness and strikes are not carried out on the bridges across the Dnieper, I personally will consider it a sign of an [epic failure].”
The Putin-loving influencer suggested the explosion was caused by a suicide bomb.
“I am not fully sure that there was a suicide bomber or suicide bombers behind the wheel of the truck that was blown up on the Crimean Bridge,” he said.
“Most likely, people were used ‘in the dark’ [unaware of the deadly cargo]…and the explosion was controlled.”
He suggested those behind the act detonated the explosives at a moment of their choosing.
“In Kyiv, they do not hesitate to take responsibility.
“They call the explosion a ‘special operation of the SBU’ [Ukrainian secret services].
“The handwriting is not quite typical for the special services of Ukraine.
“But, on the other hand, the enemy’s capabilities are great, and this must be recognised.”
The apparent attack came the day after Vladimir Putin’s 70th birthday.
He called for immediate vengeance against Kyiv.
There were suggestions Putin may address the nation on the bridge explosion amid fears he will unleash more havoc on Ukraine and has already hinted that he could use nuclear weapons.
Russia’s has launched a probe into the explosion, which it blamed on a car bomb.
The country’s investigative committee said it had “initiated a criminal case in connection with the incident on the Crimean bridge,” adding that “a truck was blown up”.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities have released images of the suspected red-coloured lorry that exploded on the bridge.
Firefighters are said to be tackling the inferno while pictures have emerged of a helicopter dropping litres of water on Kerch bridge to put out the fire.
Crimean authorities have already come under considerable flack for not spotting the bomb with x-ray machines that monitor trucks going onto the bridge.
The entrances at both ends are equipped with Russian-designed ST-6035 “stationary radio-technical inspection complexes” intended to identify explosives.
Vladimir Rogov, a key official in occupied Ukraine, said: “The Crimean bridge has been blown up. Both the road and railway lines have been cut.
“The [Ukraine] terrorist entity must be destroyed.”
The explosion has sparked panic on the Russian stronghold with huge queues appearing at petrol stations as locals scramble for fuel after being told there was only 40 days worth of it left.
Other sources are said to have claimed there was only 15 days of fuel.
Locals were also told by Crimean authorities to ration their groceries to essentials and no more than 3kgs worth amid fears for supplies to the peninsula, said reports in the peninsula.
A video shows a Russian man in Crimea saying: “We’ve had a good life, but it was short-lived.
“The end of the bridge. The ways [of escape] are now cut off.”
It comes as Ukraine in recent days has grown more confident in predicting they will retake the peninsula.
A senior US military official told the Telegraph that Ukraine could retake Crimea if it continues to recapture territory at the pace it is in Kherson and Kharkiv.
The next move for Kyiv’s forces is a potentially three pronged offensive towards the south, the paper reports.
The first route sees Ukrainian forces continue on their drive to liberate Kherson itself.
On the right of the front, the city of Mariupol, which fell to the Russians after a brutal battle for the Azovstal steel plant, is liberated in the scenario.
And in the centre, Ukrainian troops fan out across the Kherson Oblast – region – towards the Crimean peninsula.
The Russians have been expected to fight tooth and nail for the Crimea, though some officials have claimed the war could be over by Christmas.
It’s seizure by Russia in early 2014 marked the beginning of Mad Vlad’s aggression against Ukraine and his attempts to seize Russian speaking areas of the country.
Putin’s army continues to collapse, attention has begun to focus on how the Ukraine war could end.
The humiliated Russian president has seen his troops crumble and lose huge swathes of territory in recent weeks as Ukrainian defenders close in on Kherson.
The lightning advance puts Ukraine’s army in striking distance of the strategically-important southern city – the only provincial capital captured since February 24 that is still in Russian control.
Celebration of Ukrainian advances have been muted though after US President Joe Biden warned the world was on the brink of a nuclear “Armageddon” for the first time in 60 years.
The US president said Putin was “not joking” about nuking Ukraine as the Russian tyrant’s forces continue to lose massive swathes of territory.
In a chilling warning, Biden said Putin’s plan to unleash nuclear weapons is the biggest such threat since the Cuban Missile Crisis – one of the most dangerous periods of the Cold War.
The Cuban Missile Crisis erupted in 1962 when the Soviet Union responded to a US missile deployment in Turkey by sending ballistic missiles to Cuba – just miles from the US coastline.
It sparked a tense two-week standoff that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Speaking on Thursday night, Biden said the United States was “trying to figure out” Putin’s way out of the war as Ukraine continues to blitz across the country.
He warned the Russian leader was “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is… significantly underperforming”.
“For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat to the use of nuclear weapons, if in fact things continue down the path they’d been going,” Biden said.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
He added: “I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.”
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