Putin tightens security after blast on bridge linking Russia with Crimea

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree late on Saturday tightening security for the Kerch Bridge, which partially collapsed due to an explosion earlier in the day.

With the bridge being a key link between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, its collapse will paralyse Russia’s hold over the peninsula and its war efforts in southern Ukraine.

Putin also issued orders to secure the energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia.

Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, was put in charge of the effort, according to a Kremlin statement.

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Three people were killed in the blast.

While no one claimed responsibility for the explosion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video address, indirectly acknowledged the attack on the bridge by talking about the weather in Crimea but did not address its cause.

“Today was a good and mostly sunny day on the territory of our state,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea.”

He said Ukraine wants a future without occupiers. Throughout our territory, in particular in Crimea.

While Russia has not blamed Ukraine for the incident, the speaker of the pro-Russia Parliament in Crimea accused the neighbouring country for having engineered the explosion.

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Russian authorities said the blast was caused by a truck bomb. It prodded Russian lawmakers to demand President Putin to declare a “counterterrorism operation” in Ukraine.