MOSCOW, Oct  8, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Russia said Saturday three people had been 
killed after a truck exploded on its bridge linking Crimea -- a symbol of its 
annexation of the peninsula -- without immediately blaming Ukraine.

       On the same day, after a series of setbacks on the battlefield that 
triggered unprecedented criticism of its army at home, Moscow appointed a new 
general to lead its Ukraine offensive. 

       The blast ripped through the 19-kilometre bridge more than seven months 
into Moscow's Ukraine offensive.

       Local officials said it had reopened to motor traffic with vehicles subject 
to stringent screening. Shortly after, Grand Service Express, which operates 
rail services there, said the first trains had left the peninsula for Moscow 
and St Petersburg.

       Dramatic social media footage showed the bridge on fire with parts plunging 
into the water. 
       Russian investigators said three people had been killed. Two bodies -- a 
man and a woman -- were pulled out of the water after the bridge had partially 
collapsed.
       Their identities were still to be established, but they were likely 
passengers in a car driving near the exploded truck, Moscow said.

       The authorities also said they had identified the owner of the truck as a 
resident of Russia's southern Krasnodar region, saying his home was being 
searched.

       Russia said the blast -- which happened just after 6:00 am local time -- 
had set ablaze seven oil tankers transported by train and collapsed two car 
lanes of the giant road and rail structure. 
       
       - '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, 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." 

       Ukraine's presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak earlier took to Twitter 
posting a picture 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 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 on the bridge. 

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

       And the spokeswoman of Russia's foreign ministry said Kyiv's reaction to 
the blasts showed its "terrorist nature." 
       
       - 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."
       There have been several explosions at Russian military installations in the 
Crimean peninsula.
       If it is established that Ukraine was behind the latest blast, it will 
trigger alarm with the bridge so far from the frontline.
       Authorities in Crimea appeared to downplay the blasts and 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 several weeks of military setbacks, Moscow on Saturday announced that 
a new general -- Sergei Surovikin -- would take over its forces in Ukraine. 
       Surovikin previously led Russia's forces in southern Ukraine. He has combat 
experience in the 1990s conflicts in Tajikistan and Chechnya, as well as, more 
recently, in Syria.
       The decision, which -- unusually -- was made public, comes after growing 
discontent among the elite over the army's leadership.
       This month, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov had called for a top general to 
be fired in Ukraine after Russian forces lost control of the key city of Lyman. 
       Senior Russian lawmaker Andrei Kartapolov urged officers to stop "lying" 
about the situation on the battlefield.
       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.  
       On Friday, Moscow said its forces had captured ground in Donetsk, their 
first claim of new gains since a Kyiv counter-offensive rattled Moscow's 
military campaign. 
       The Donetsk region, partially controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists for 
years, is a key prize for Russian forces, which sent troops to Ukraine into 
February.