At least two dead in an "emergency" on the Crimean bridge that has forced the closure of traffic

Ukrainian media point to an explosion on the bridge and the Crimean authorities accuse the "terrorist regime of kyiv" of "a new crime"

At least two people have died and a third has been injured in an incident on the Kerch bridge, an infrastructure that connects the Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia, about which the local authorities have not provided more details despite what Ukrainian media point out. that it is an explosion.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Viacheslav Gladkov, has confirmed that the victims were in a "damaged car" with regional license plates. A family was in the vehicle, the parents have died, and the daughter, a minor, has been injured and is being transferred to a hospital.

For his part, the governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, has announced the suspension of traffic on the Kerch bridge, without providing information on the type of incident. The vehicles that were waiting to cross the bridge - about a thousand cars - have begun to turn around, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.

"Given the current situation, I ask the residents and tourists of the peninsula to refrain from traveling over the Crimean bridge and, for security reasons, choose an alternative land route through the new regions," said the adviser to the authorities of the Crimean peninsula, Oleg Kryuchkov, referring to the annexed Ukrainian territories.

The authorities have stressed that Crimea has basic products such as food and fuel. They have also indicated that they have opened a direct line with the coordination headquarters for those affected by the "emergency." Hours later, rail traffic has resumed in the place, as indicated by the Crimean Operational Office through its Telegram account.

"Railway traffic has restarted. The train from Simferopol to Moscow has left for the Krasnodar Territory," he said, after more than five hours stopped on the tracks. The incident has also caused delays in other trains headed for Moscow and Rostov.

After the event, the president of the State Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, has accused the "terrorist regime of kyiv" of "committing a new crime". "They have attacked the Crimean bridge. In Kiev they have to know that the automobile part of the crossing is an exclusively civilian object, but that has not stopped the terrorists. It will not stop them in the future either," he criticized.

"They can only be stopped if they are deprived of the physical possibility of carrying out these blows," he stated, before stressing that "for this it is necessary to bring the entire Black Sea coast under control, free Kherson, Mikolaiv and Odesa." "No agreements with them. They will use any agreement to hit us. They are not successful on the battlefield, so they resort to terrorist activities," he has argued.

Finally, Konstantinov has called for calm and has outlined that "the railway line has not been damaged by the attack." "Crimea is connected to mainland Russia by a territorial corridor in the north and we have experience in ferry traffic. We are not isolated. I guarantee that the consequences of the terrorist attack will be quickly eliminated and that the terrorists will answer for their actions," he concluded. .

Sources from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have indicated in statements to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform that the event was part of a special operation by Ukrainian forces. "It was difficult to get to the bridge, but in the end we managed to do it," they stressed, before recalling that the head of the SBU, Vasil Maliuk, said in the past that the bridge is a legal objective.

On the other hand, the spokesperson for the Defense and Security Forces in the South, Natalia Gumeniuk, has stressed that the incident could be "a provocation" by Russia before the expiration of the agreement on the export of grain from Ukrainian ports, signed in June 2022 with the mediation of the United Nations and Turkey, as reported by the Ukrainian newspaper 'Suspilne'.

"It is characteristic that, with such a concentration of the naval group in this area and general tensions against the background of doubts about the extension of the grain agreement, similar provocations are created, which the occupying Crimean authorities immediately and very loudly communicate. It is a typical way of solving these problems by the occupying power in Crimea and the aggressor country in general," Gumeniuk said.

This bridge was the scene at the beginning of October of a strong explosion in the framework of the war with Ukraine that put the infrastructure out of service for several months, citing "repair and restoration work."

That partial destruction of the Kerch bridge was one of the most symbolic blows against Russia since the start of its military offensive in February. The Russian authorities blamed Ukrainian intelligence from the outset for being behind the attack, and confirmed several arrests in the framework of an investigation for alleged terrorism.

Inaugurated by Putin in 2018, it is one of the most important infrastructure works on the peninsula since its annexation in 2014 and a symbolic and practical example of the connection of this territory to Russia. The structure, 19 kilometers long, includes a rail transport track and a highway.