Vladimir Putin has ramped up security on the Kerch bridge linking Crimea to Russia after it was partly destroyed in a huge explosion which killed three people.
With some politicians calling for the Russian president to declare the war in Ukraine a “counterterrorism operation”, he has ordered the FSB security service to tighten security on the bridge – viewed widely as a symbol of Crimea’s annexation – and on the infrastructure supplying electricity and gas to the peninsula.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the explosion was caused by a truck bomb and had caused seven railway cars carrying fuel to catch fire, resulting in a “partial collapse of two sections of the bridge.”
Though Kyiv has not claimed responsiblity for the explosion – nor has the Kremlin officially apportioned blame – David Arakhamia, the leader of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, said the explosion was a consequence of Moscow’s takeover of Crimea and Russia’s “illegal” empire.
Mr Zelensky’s top aide Mykhailo Podolyak appeared to claim the explosion was “the beginning”, adding: “Everything illegal must be destroyed.”
