MOSCOW, Oct 9, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - 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.

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. 

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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. 

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.

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.