Berliner Boersenzeitung - Crimea bridge resumes traffic after blast, Russian army leadership changed

EUR -
AED 4.021503
AFN 73.974597
ALL 98.722789
AMD 422.669128
ANG 1.970756
AOA 999.073261
ARS 1065.84545
AUD 1.62179
AWG 1.971313
AZN 1.865626
BAM 1.955657
BBD 2.207839
BDT 130.670456
BGN 1.955539
BHD 0.41227
BIF 3225.864382
BMD 1.09487
BND 1.428296
BOB 7.583446
BRL 6.144196
BSD 1.09352
BTN 91.900888
BWP 14.51194
BYN 3.578539
BYR 21459.452596
BZD 2.204139
CAD 1.507253
CDF 3151.036344
CHF 0.938544
CLF 0.03677
CLP 1018.515607
CNY 7.736575
CNH 7.74406
COP 4594.964383
CRC 564.858743
CUC 1.09487
CUP 29.014056
CVE 110.256947
CZK 25.320626
DJF 194.715778
DKK 7.468879
DOP 65.835191
DZD 145.736004
EGP 53.12012
ERN 16.42305
ETB 130.945336
FJD 2.431492
FKP 0.833808
GBP 0.837761
GEL 2.972616
GGP 0.833808
GHS 17.446726
GIP 0.833808
GMD 75.002813
GNF 9434.310915
GTQ 8.455382
GYD 228.77329
HKD 8.507035
HNL 27.199013
HRK 7.444033
HTG 144.069477
HUF 401.69729
IDR 17046.195734
ILS 4.116241
IMP 0.833808
INR 92.119463
IQD 1432.49537
IRR 46096.769633
ISK 149.614412
JEP 0.833808
JMD 173.117355
JOD 0.77572
JPY 163.305383
KES 141.049698
KGS 93.615547
KHR 4442.675506
KMF 492.148233
KPW 985.382407
KRW 1477.330449
KWD 0.335611
KYD 0.911233
KZT 529.441329
LAK 23977.248695
LBP 97920.747843
LKR 320.076622
LRD 211.044585
LSL 19.108004
LTL 3.232867
LVL 0.662276
LYD 5.234618
MAD 10.723017
MDL 19.29959
MGA 5024.632999
MKD 61.6055
MMK 3556.09515
MNT 3720.368314
MOP 8.752161
MRU 43.289838
MUR 50.477604
MVR 16.806669
MWK 1896.161504
MXN 21.106947
MYR 4.69426
MZN 69.966278
NAD 19.108004
NGN 1795.587226
NIO 40.237061
NOK 11.710296
NPR 147.04126
NZD 1.792225
OMR 0.421471
PAB 1.09352
PEN 4.073302
PGK 4.300686
PHP 62.659822
PKR 303.53693
PLN 4.294386
PYG 8534.376647
QAR 3.986609
RON 4.980021
RSD 117.185076
RUB 104.753149
RWF 1472.392456
SAR 4.111472
SBD 9.086684
SCR 14.892612
SDG 658.568348
SEK 11.361252
SGD 1.429029
SHP 0.833808
SLE 25.014827
SLL 22958.871473
SOS 624.954353
SRD 34.97727
STD 22661.599096
SVC 9.568301
SYP 2750.893728
SZL 19.101605
THB 36.289509
TJS 11.656449
TMT 3.842994
TND 3.366254
TOP 2.564299
TRY 37.569922
TTD 7.422458
TWD 35.231608
TZS 2979.682363
UAH 45.028211
UGX 4018.706473
USD 1.09487
UYU 45.72666
UZS 13961.980213
VEF 3966224.203526
VES 42.519585
VND 27174.674155
VUV 129.98517
WST 3.062858
XAF 655.909092
XAG 0.034703
XAU 0.000412
XCD 2.958941
XDR 0.813441
XOF 655.909092
XPF 119.331742
YER 274.10111
ZAR 19.146447
ZMK 9855.148044
ZMW 28.89489
ZWL 352.547703
  • BCC

    3.4200

    142.37

    +2.4%

  • JRI

    0.0300

    13.25

    +0.23%

  • SCS

    0.3100

    12.91

    +2.4%

  • NGG

    0.5600

    66.24

    +0.85%

  • CMSC

    0.1200

    24.71

    +0.49%

  • CMSD

    0.1800

    24.95

    +0.72%

  • RBGPF

    1.7400

    61.23

    +2.84%

  • RIO

    0.3900

    67.23

    +0.58%

  • VOD

    -0.0900

    9.65

    -0.93%

  • RYCEF

    0.0100

    7.01

    +0.14%

  • AZN

    0.4800

    77.35

    +0.62%

  • BTI

    0.0700

    35.18

    +0.2%

  • BP

    -0.2300

    32.11

    -0.72%

  • BCE

    0.1600

    33.02

    +0.48%

  • RELX

    0.4700

    46.83

    +1%

  • GSK

    -0.3800

    38.83

    -0.98%

Crimea bridge resumes traffic after blast, Russian army leadership changed

Crimea bridge resumes traffic after blast, Russian army leadership changed

Traffic resumed Saturday over a key bridge linking Russia with Crimea -- seen as a symbol of the Kremlin's annexation of the peninsula -- after it was partially destroyed by an explosion Moscow blamed on a truck bomb.

Text size:

The Kremlin announced on the same day the appointment of a new general to lead its Ukraine offensive following a series of battlefield setbacks that triggered unprecedented criticism of its army at home.

The 19-kilometre (12-mile) bridge was hit by a blast around dawn on Saturday, killing three people, setting several oil tankers ablaze and collapsing two car lanes, Russian investigators said.

The explosion drew celebrations from Ukrainians and others on social media, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made no direct mention of it in his nightly address and officials made no claim of responsibility.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin told reporters "traffic has been fully restored" on the bridge's railway, according to state news agency Ria Novosti, without specifying when operations resumed.

Khusnullin had confirmed the resumption is for "both freight and passenger traffic" in an earlier post on Telegram, and said one of the destroyed lanes would be restored "in the near future".

Local officials had said earlier in the day that the bridge had been reopened to motor traffic with vehicles subject to stringent screening, while rail operator Grand Service Express said the first trains had left the peninsula for Moscow and St Petersburg.

Dramatic social media footage posted less than 24 hours before Moscow's statements showed the bridge on fire with parts plunging into the water.

Following the blast, the bodies of an unidentified man and a woman were pulled out of the water, likely passengers in a car driving near the exploded truck, Moscow said.

Authorities had identified the owner of the truck as a resident of Russia's southern Krasnodar region, saying his home was being searched.

- 'Emergency situation' -

The bridge is logistically crucial for Moscow, a vital transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

It is also hugely symbolic.

President Vladimir Putin personally inaugurated the bridge in 2018 -- even driving a truck across it -- and Moscow had maintained the crossing was safe despite the fighting.

While some in Moscow hinted at Ukrainian "terrorism", state media continued to call it an "emergency situation."

In his address, Zelensky spoke of a "sunny" future for Ukrainians -- one without occupiers, "in particular in the Crimea".

While he made no mention of the strategic bridge, his adviser Mykhailo Podolyak earlier posted a picture on Twitter of a long section of the bridge half-submerged.

"Crimea, the bridge, the beginning," he wrote.

"Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled."

But in a later statement, he appeared to suggest that Moscow had a hand in the blast.

"It is worth noting that the truck that detonated, according to all indications, entered the bridge from the Russian side. So the answers should be sought in Russia," he said.

The Ukrainian post office announced it was preparing to print stamps showing the "Crimean bridge -- or more precisely, what remains of it".

The Kremlin's spokesman said Putin had ordered a commission to be set up to look into the blast.

Officials in Moscow stopped short of blaming Kyiv, but a Russian-installed official in Crimea pointed the finger at "Ukrainian vandals."

- Calls for retaliation -

Some officials in Moscow and in Russian-occupied Ukraine called for retaliation.

"There is an undisguised terrorist war against us," Russian ruling party deputy Oleg Morozov told the RIA Novosti news agency.

A Russian-installed official in the occupied Ukrainian Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, said: "Everyone is waiting for a retaliatory strike and it is likely to come."

Military analysts said the blast could have a major impact if Moscow saw the need to shift already hard-pressed troops to the Crimea from other regions or if it prompted a rush by residents to leave.

Mick Ryan, a retired Australian major general now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that even if Ukrainians were not behind the blast, it constituted "a massive influence operation win for Ukraine."

"It is a demonstration to Russians, and the rest of the world, that Russia's military cannot protect any of the provinces it recently annexed," he said on Twitter.

Authorities in Crimea tried to calm fears of food and fuel shortages in Crimea, dependent on the Russian mainland since Moscow annexed it in 2014.

The blasts come after Ukraine's recent lightning territorial gains in the east and south that have undermined the Kremlin's claim that it annexed Donetsk, neighbouring Lugansk and the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

- Moscow appoints new general -

After weeks of military setbacks, Moscow on Saturday announced that a new general -- Sergei Surovikin -- would take over its forces in Ukraine.

The decision, which -- unusually -- was made public, comes after growing discontent among the elite over the army's leadership.

Also on Saturday, the governor of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said Kyiv's forces had fired at a Russian border village, injuring a teenage girl.

(T.Burkhard--BBZ)