London - A huge truck bomb explosion destroyed the strategic road-and-rail Kerch bridge, the only link between Russia and the Crimea peninsula on Saturday bringing down sections of road taking traffic in one direction; Ukrainian officials did not claim of responsibility.
The bombing came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 70, dealing him a humiliating blow that could lead him to up the ante in his war on Ukraine.
In August, Russia suffered a series of explosions at an airbase and munitions depot in Crimea, which underlined its vulnerability.
Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the 19-km bridge, the longest in Europe, linking it to Russia’s transport network was opened with great fanfare by President Vladimir Putin four years later.
It now represents a crucial supply route for the Russian forces who have taken control of most of southern Ukraine's Kherson region.
The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said on social media that the blast occurred at 6:07 a.m. (0307 GMT) in a freight truck and caused seven fuel tanker wagons to catch fire on a train heading for the peninsula.
The agency said two sections of road bridge had partially collapsed, but that the arch spanning the Kerch Strait, the waterway through which ships travel between the Black Sea and Azov Sea, was not damaged.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor of Crimea, said on social media that the road bridge was still intact in one direction, although traffic was suspended while the damage was assessed.
Image courtesy - Euromaidan Press
Images showed thick smoke pouring from part of the bridge.
Later, the Emergency Ministry said the fire had been extinguished, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser posted a message on Twitter saying the incident was just "the beginning" but stopped short of saying Ukrainian forces were responsible for the blast.
Putin has instructed the government to create a state commission to investigate the incident, TASS news agency reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Interfax quoted the chairman of the Crimean republic's State Council, Vladimir Konstantinov, as saying that "Ukrainian vandals managed to reach for the Crimean bridge with their bloody hands".
The head of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov posted a video of the burning bridge on social media alongside a video of Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy birthday, Mr President".
-Reuters