It was unclear whether the driver of the truck, who died in the explosion, knew there were explosives inside. In video captured by a surveillance camera on the bridge, a huge ball of fire is seen, appearing to consume several vehicles. A small sedan and a semi-trailer truck driving side by side appear at the epicenter of the explosion. The explosion caused the partial collapse of two sections of the bridge.
For the Ukrainians, the explosion “is not necessarily a decisive victory, but the balance of the war often turns on an accumulation of lesser victories”, said Ben Barry, senior researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies , a London-based research group. . “It’s another ratchet of pressure on President Putin.”
Although there have been no official claims of responsibility, Ukrainian officials, who in the past have said the bridge would be a legitimate target for a strike, said the blast was not an accident and did not did not hide their satisfaction.
“Crimea, the bridge, the beginning,” wrote Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian president, in a Posting on Twitter Saturday. “Anything illegal must be destroyed. Everything that was stolen is returned to Ukraine. All Russian occupiers expelled.
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, the Security Service of Ukraine, known by its Ukrainian acronym SBU, released a statement rephrasing a stanza from a poem by Ukrainian national poet, Taras Shevchenko. “Dawn, the bridge burns beautifully,” the agency posted on Twitter. “A nightingale in the Crimea meets the SBU”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to allude to the attack when he noted in his evening speech that Saturday “was a good and generally sunny day” in Ukrainian territory. “Unfortunately it was cloudy in Crimea,” he said.