Putin accuses Ukraine of Crimea bridge blast 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of being behind the blast which damaged the only bridge over the Kerch Strait to the Crimea peninsula.

Putin said Ukraine masterminded the act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure.

“This was devised, carried out, and ordered by the Ukrainian special services,” Putin said in a video on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel.

The bridge is a major supply route for Russian forces in southern Ukraine and a symbol of Russia’s control of Crimea, the peninsula it proclaimed annexed after its troops seized it in 2014.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the blast but has celebrated it.

Senior Russian officials demanded a swift response from the Kremlin ahead of a meeting of Putin’s security council on Monday.

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said ahead of the meeting that Russia should kill the “terrorists” responsible for the attack.

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“Russia can only respond to this crime by directly killing terrorists, as is the custom elsewhere in the world. This is what Russian citizens expect,” he was quoted as saying by the state news agency Tass.

Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, said on Sunday a vehicle had exploded on the bridge causing a fire.

The vehicle had traveled through Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia, and Russia’s Krasnodar region before reaching the bridge, he said.

Among those who helped Ukrainian special services prepare the attack were “citizens of Russia and foreign countries,” Bastrykin added in the video on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel.

Zainab Sa’id