A bridge linking Russia to Crimea, a key symbol of Moscow’s annexation, was hit by a massive explosion on Saturday morning which Russian authorities said was caused by a car bomb.
“Today at 6:07 am (0307 GMT) on the road traffic side of the Crimean bridge … a car bomb exploded, setting fire to seven oil tankers being carried by rail to Crimea,” Russian news agencies cited the national anti-terrorism committee as saying.
The Kerch Bridge was built by Russia on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin to form a link to Crimea after the 2014 annexation, and was a symbol of Moscow’s illegal occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula.
The bridge served as a key transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
Russian news agencies said a fire had broken out on a train on the bridge and that a fuel tank was ablaze.
“An oil tanker caught fire at the end of a train,” Crimea’s rail service said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Footage circulating on social media apparently showed a large fire.
Russia had maintained the bridge was safe despite the fighting in Ukraine but had threatened Kyiv with reprisals if it was attacked.
The reports came hours after a series of explosions rocked the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv, sending towering plumes of illuminated smoke into the sky and triggering a series of secondary explosions.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Putin this week claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory, including the Zaporizhzhia region that is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, whose reactors were shut down last month.