The only way Russia can respond to Ukraine’s deadly attack on the Crimean Bridge is by eliminating the culprits who orchestrated the explosion, Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president, said on Sunday.
In an interview, Medvedev, who is now the deputy head of the Security Council, made it clear that he had no doubt who was behind the blast targeting the strategic link between Russia’s Crimean peninsula and the mainland.
“This crime was commissioned and executed by the failed state of Ukraine. This is a terrorist act and sabotage committed by the criminal Kiev regime,” he said, adding that authorities had already reached their conclusion.
“Russia’s response to this crime can only be the elimination of the terrorists. In a way which is accepted in the world,” he reiterated.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Ukrainian intelligence was behind the deadly attack on the bridge when he met with the head of the national Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin.
Bastrykin, reported that “this was a terrorist act organized by the Ukrainian security services,” which was aimed at destroying major civilian infrastructure.
Two US outlets, the New York Times and the Washington Post, also claimed that sources had confirmed the explosion was orchestrated by Ukraine’s intelligence services.
At the same time, Ukrainian officials stopped short of claiming responsibility for the attack, but cheered the explosion, with an aide to President Vladimir Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, saying that it was “just the beginning,” adding that “everything illegal must be destroyed.”
The powerful blast rocked the bridge early Saturday morning, killing at least three people and causing a partial collapse of the road section, as well as a blaze on a parallel railway span where seven fuel tanks caught fire. The explosion led to a temporary halt of both road and rail traffic, although both had resumed by Saturday evening.