President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of carrying out an attack that badly damaged a key bridge linking annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland, his first comments on an episode that further highlighted the woes of his military in the eighth month of its invasion.
“The authors, the executors, the commissioners are Ukraine’s secret services,” Putin said at a meeting with Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of Russia’s Investigative Commission, according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin website. Citizens of Russia and some unspecified foreign states assisted Ukraine in preparing the explosion, Bastrykin responded, according to the transcript.
Ukraine hasn’t officially claimed responsibility for the blast on the multibillion-dollar bridge that was meant to symbolize the permanence of Russia’s earlier land grab in Ukraine, although it commemorated the explosion within hours with a new postage stamp. Stretching 12 miles across the Kerch Strait, the bridge was a signature project for Putin after the peninsula was annexed in 2014. Putin opened the bridge by driving a truck across it.
