The driver of the vehicle that exploded on the Kerch bridge (Crimean peninsula) on Saturday had the task of transport fertilizers for a truck hired over the Internet. This has been confirmed by a source from the Russian security forces to the Russian newspaper RBC. According to this source, the trucker “was used, that is, he allegedly had no knowledge of the planned terrorist attack”pick up the middle.
The first version about this attack was by the National Antiterrorist Committee of Russia. This body released a statement in which it claimed that a truck exploded on the bridge’s car lane, burning seven fuel tankers that were being dragged by a train on a parallel rail line heading to Crimea.
It was not clear if the driver of the truck, who was killed in the blast, knew there were explosives inside. In a video recorded by a surveillance camera on the bridgea large ball of fire is seen that appears to consume multiple vehicles. A small car and a tractor-trailer traveling side by side appear in the explosion. This action caused the partial collapse of two sections of the bridge.
[La voladura del puente de Kerch, última humillación de Putin: Kiev se burla de su ‘regalo de cumpleaños’]
Explosives experts from the local department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) are now working on establishing the nature and origin of the explosives. Likewise, andthis sunday, a group of divers will evaluate the structures of the bridgewhich suffered a collapse in two parts on the automobile road.
More unknowns
According to the Mash medium, the truck was visually inspected before passing the bridgebut the agent who carried out that work did not find anything suspicious. This medium published a video on its Telegram channel in which the vehicle is apparently seen being inspected. Nevertheless, supervision did not include x-rays.
Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled. pic.twitter.com/yUiSwOLlDP
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) October 8, 2022
This medium has ensured that the truck could have been driven by Majir Yusubov, 52, uncle of the owner of the vehicle.
The Telegram Baza channel in turn broadcast a video of the nephew, Samir Yusubovaged 25, in which he states that “it has nothing to do with what happened on the bridge in Crimea”.
The houses of his relatives were searched, but he is abroad, says Baza. Throughout the past month, the truck was seen in the Krasnodar Territory. For a few days, Majir, a resident of the neighboring Krasnodar Territory, had not contacted his relatives, according to the media.
At the entrance of the bridge they installed special equipment that in theory should detect explosives in vehiclesaccording to the independent media Meduza.
Kremlin response
For President Vladimir Putin, who presided over the opening of the bridge in 2018, the explosion was a total offense, underscoring his current inability to control a Ukrainian attacks.
The explosion is one more symptom that the Russian army is overwhelmed. The invading forces failed to protect the bridgedespite its centrality to the war effort, its personal importance to Putin, and its potent symbolism as the literal connection between Russia and Crimea.
Hours after the blast, the Kremlin appointed Gen. Sergei Surovikin, another new commander, to oversee its forces in Ukraine. Past leadership shakeups have done little to correct the military’s faltering performance.
