MOSCOW: A truck bomb detonated on Saturday, setting a section of a bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean peninsula on fire and collapse, according to Russian officials. The bridge served as a vital supply route for Moscow's dwindling war effort in southern Ukraine.

After turning 70 a day earlier, the attack on the bridge dealt a humiliating blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which may prompt him to step up his campaign against Ukraine.

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According to Russia's National Counter-Terrorism Committee, a truck bomb set fire to seven fuel-carrying rail cars, causing "partial collapse of two sections of the bridge." The committee immediately stayed the allegations.

Russia's military operations in the south rely on the Crimean peninsula, which has significant symbolic value for the country. If the bridge was disabled it would be much more difficult to transport supplies to the peninsula. Ukraine is conducting a retaliation to take back the territories Russia had occupied at the beginning of the offensive in the north of Crimea and build a land corridor along the Sea of ​​Azov.

The bridge has sections for both trains and cars. According to Russia's National Counter-Terrorism Committee, the explosion and fire caused one of the two links of the automobile bridge to break, but the other link remained standing.

Authorities have stopped commuter train traffic across the bridge. Upon learning of the explosion, Putin commanded the formation of a government committee to deal with the crisis.

Europe's longest bridge spans a distance of 12 miles across the Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and the Azov Sea. It has given Russia access to the Crimean peninsula, which Ukraine lost to Russia in 2014. Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly threatened to destroy the bridge.

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In May 2018, Russia allowed automobile traffic on the first section of the period. The parallel rail bridge was inaugurated the following year.

The $3.6 billion project is a solid representation of Moscow's claims on the Crimean peninsula. It was the only land connection between Russia and the peninsula before it captured more Ukrainian territory at the northern end of the Azov Sea in fierce fighting earlier this year, particularly in the area around the city of Mariupol.

Russia's vulnerability was exposed in August by explosions at an airbase and munitions depot in Crimea.

A truck bomb was detonated on a bridge in the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv early Saturday, hours after the explosions, soaring plumes of smoke into the sky and setting off a series of subsequent explosions.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov claimed on Telegram that missile strikes at the core of the city were the cause of the early morning blasts. They claimed that a medical facility in the city and a non-residential building caught fire as a result of the blasts. At present there is no report of any casualties.

Hours after the blasts, Russia focused its turbulent offensive on areas of Ukraine it had forcibly occupied, and the death toll from the first missile attacks on apartment buildings in the southern city of Zaporizhzhya reached 14. .

Norway's Nobel Committee on Friday presented the Nobel Peace Prize to a prisoner in Belarus, a close ally of Moscow and human rights groups in Russia, Ukraine.

According to committee chairman Berit Rees-Andersen, the award was given to "three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence", but it was widely criticized for his criticism of Putin and his handling of the worst armed conflict in Europe. as was explained. second World War.

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For illegally claiming four Ukrainian territories as Russian territory, including the Zaporizhzhya region, which is home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant and whose reactors were shut down last month, Putin on Wednesday signed the documents.

Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014, which was carried out after Moscow claimed that the inhabitants of the peninsula had voted to join Russia, foreshadowed that action. Widespread criticism of that action led to the U.S. and imposed EU sanctions.