A fire sparked by a car bomb has broken out on a key road and rail bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula to Russia, which annexed the territory from Ukraine in 2014, Moscow authorities said Saturday.
"Today at 6:07 am (0307 GMT) on the road traffic side of the Crimean bridge ... a car bomb exploded, setting fire to seven oil tankers being carried by rail to Crimea," Russian news agencies cited the national anti-terrorism committee as saying.
The bridge, which was built on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin and inaugurated in 2018, was a key transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, especially in the south, as well as ferrying troops there.
Russia had maintained the bridge was safe despite the fighting in Ukraine but had threatened Kyiv with reprisals if it was attacked.
In September, Russia announced the annexation of the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia after staging referendums that Kyiv and the West say were phony exercises held at gunpoint.
A Ukrainian presidential advisor posted a message on Twitter after Saturday's explosion and fire on the Crimean bridge, calling it "the beginning" but not directly claiming Ukrainian responsibility.
"Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled," Mykhailo Podolyak wrote.
