(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv on Sunday of having committed a “terrorist act” by organizing the explosion which partially destroyed the Crimean bridge on Saturday connecting Russia to the annexed peninsula, followed in the night by strikes murderous Russians against a Ukrainian city.
Posted at 2:27 p.m.
Updated at 2:44 p.m.
“The perpetrators, performers and sponsors are the Ukrainian secret services,” Putin summed up after a meeting with the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, according to a video released by the Kremlin.
“There is no doubt that this is a terrorist act aimed at destroying critical Russian civilian infrastructure,” added the Russian president.
This was Vladimir Putin’s first reaction to the explosion which occurred early Saturday morning, and which constitutes a new major setback for Russia, at a time when its forces are in difficulty in Ukraine.
PHOTO ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Crimean Bridge on fire after the explosion
“It is a terrorist act prepared by the Ukrainian secret services. The goal was to destroy a large civil infrastructure that is very important for Russia,” added the head of the Russian Investigation Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, on Sunday during his meeting with Mr. Putin.
The Crimean Bridge, built at great expense and inaugurated in 2018 by Vladimir Putin, is also used for logistical transport for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities had repeatedly threatened to target him.
The Kremlin said the Russian president was convening the Security Council on Monday.
The Ukrainian army and special services (SBU) in Kyiv have neither confirmed nor denied their involvement, and President Volodymyr Zelensky only quipped in a video about the “cloudy” weather on Saturday in Crimea — a probable allusion to the smoke from the fire — “although it was also hot there”.
He promised in the same video a Crimea “without occupants”, Ukraine, supported in this by the vast majority of the international community and the United Nations, having never accepted the annexation in 2014 by Moscow of the peninsula following a “referendum” whose legality was disputed.
Also on Sunday, he in return qualified the Russian military as “terrorists”, after strikes on apartment buildings in Zaporizhia, a city in southern Ukraine, which killed between 12 and 17 according to reports, three days after previous bombings that killed 17 people there.
A final report from the Zaporizhia regional administration reported 13 dead and 60 injured, including women and children.