KIEV: President Volodymyr Zelensky's advisor Mikhail Podoliak warned in Kiev that the explosion on Saturday that shook the vital Kerch bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, a despised symbol of the Kremlin's annexation of the southern Ukrainian peninsula, is only "the beginning."

According to Russian Times news, a vehicle explosion early on Saturday morning damaged the road and started a massive fire, forcing the closure of the bridge. "Crimea, the bridge, and the start. Everything that is illegal must be destroyed, everything that has been stolen must be given back to Ukraine, and everything that Russia has captured must be freed, "added Podoliak in a tweet.

Since Russia began its continuing invasion of Kiev on February 24, RT said, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly threatened to destroy the bridge. The largest bridge in Europe "should be destroyed," according to Podoliak, who stated this in August, because it is "an unlawful structure and the main entrance to supply the Russian troops in Crimea."

In addition, according to Zelensky and other team members, Ukraine would use force to reclaim Crimea, which was decisively decided to merge with Russia in a referendum in 2014, according to RT.
Images posted on social media after the explosion at around 6 a.m. on Saturday showed a rapidly blazing fire consuming at least two train cars from a train on the bridge, along with a sizable plume of black smoke,as per reports,

It was not immediately known what caused the explosion, which occurred while a train was crossing the bridge and was, according to witnesses, audible from miles away.

A second fire may have been visible in some photographs, off to the side of the primary fire. The road bridge that parallels the train lines appeared to have collapsed in later photographs as well, according to The Guardian.
The bridge serves as an essential logistical supply route for Russian forces in the Crimea and the southern regions of Ukraine that Russia has invaded. It is also extremely symbolic for Russia. The petroleum tanker was involved, as perthe Russian news agency TASS.

Oleg Kryuchkov, an advisor to the Russian occupation chief of the Crimea, stated that preliminary information indicated that a gasoline tank (railroad) car had caught fire at one of the sections of the Crimean bridge, but that the shipping arches were unharmed.

Another official sent by Moscow said: "On one of the bridge's sections, a fuel-filled cistern carriage is on fire. No changes are made to shipping arches. It's too early to discuss causes and effects. The effort to put out the fire is ongoing." The train looked to have at least half a dozen fires burning ferociously in multiple railway trucks along its length, according to video footage shot from the road crossing.

The railway span is a portion of a pair of parallel bridges that Russia erected after invading and annexing Crimea in 2014. These bridges span the Kerch Strait and connect the Russian city of Krasnodar with Crimea.

The roughly 19-km-long road bridge was inaugurated in 2018 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, while the railway bridge followed two years later.

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