Hours after, a massive explosion destroyed portions of the road, and light traffic has once again started to flow across Russia's only bridge to Crimea, according to a report by BBC.

The bridge was destroyed in two sections by a fireball on Saturday, interrupting the most crucial supply route for Russian forces fighting in southern Ukraine and dealing a blow to the Kremlin, which is suffering ongoing battlefield defeats.

(Photo : Vera Katkova/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A firefigter helicopter pours water on the carriages of a train on fire on the Kerch bridge that links Crimea to Russia, after a truck exploded, near Kerch, on October 8, 2022. - Moscow announced on October 8, 2022 that a truck exploded igniting a huge fire and damaging the key Kerch bridge -- built as Russia's sole land link with annexed Crimea -- and vowed to find the perpetrators, without immediately blaming Ukraine.

Russia Alleges a Ukrainian Truck Bomb

As reported first by the New York Times (NYT), Russian authorities alleged that a Ukrainian truck bomb was to blame for the explosion that drove a portion of the 12-mile Kerch Strait bridge collapsing into the water.

The massive explosion killed three people.

While praising the damage, the Ukrainian authorities did not accept the allegations thrown at them for the explosion.

However, a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity with the NYT claimed that the attack was planned by Ukraine's intelligence agencies and involved a bomb carried aboard a vehicle that crossed the bridge.

It was unknown if the truck's driver, who appeared to have perished in the explosion, knew that the vehicle contained explosives. A massive fireball is visible in the footage taken by a surveillance camera on the bridge, and it also showed a tractor-trailer truck and a small sedan traveling side by side.

According to the Russian state news service Tass, the railroad portion of the bridge had been repaired by Saturday night, and a train with 15 cars had successfully crossed the bridge.

Car traffic has been observed on the undamaged side of the bridge, according to a message posted on Telegram by Sergei Aksyonov, the head of Crimea.

Read also: Russia's Nord Stream Gas Pipelines Leak Natural Gas, European Leaders Suspect Sabotage

Why the Bridge is Important to Russia

Any significant obstruction to traffic on the bridge might have a significant impact on Russia's capacity to carry out an operation against Ukrainian forces.

The bridge serves as the main supply route for the military connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. The ability of the Russian military to provide gasoline, equipment, and ammunition to Russian soldiers fighting in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions will be severely constrained without it, as noted by analysts.

President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to be referencing the explosion when he declared in his nightly address that Saturday "was a good and generally sunny day" in Ukrainian territory.

He added that "unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea."

The Security Service of Ukraine, the country's internal intelligence service, released a statement that rephrased a line from a poem by Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine's national poet.

The tweet reads: "Dawn, the bridge is burning beautifully. A nightingale in Crimea meets the S.B.U."

Related Article: The US Warns Russia of 'Catastrophic' Repercussions if it Uses Nuclear Weapons Against Ukraine 

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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla