Two passenger trains left the Crimean cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol and headed toward the bridge Saturday evening. Automobile traffic resumed Saturday afternoon on one of the two links that remained intact, with the flow alternating in each direction, said Crimea’s Russia-backed leader, Sergey Aksyonov. Train and automobile traffic over the bridge was temporarily suspended. The truck that exploded was owned by a resident of the Krasnodar region in southern Russia, the Investigative Committee said, adding that the man’s home was searched and experts were looking at the truck’s route. Putin signed a decree late Saturday tightening security for the bridge and for energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia, and put Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, in charge of the effort.Īll vehicles crossing the bridge are supposed to undergo state-of-the-art checks for explosives. The explosion, which Russian authorities said was caused by a truck bomb, risked a sharp escalation in Russia’s eight-month war, with some Russian lawmakers calling for President Vladimir Putin to declare a “counterterrorism operation,” shedding the term “special military operation” that had downplayed the scope of fighting to ordinary Russians. But Kyiv stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge, and some lauded the destruction on Saturday. The speaker of the Russian-backed regional parliament in Crimea accused Ukraine, but Moscow didn’t apportion blame. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, which killed three people. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - An explosion Saturday caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia, damaging an important supply artery for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine and hitting a towering symbol of Russian power in the region.

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