When Vladimir Putin opened the 12-mile Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait in 2018, he hailed it as a “miracle” and savoured his moment of triumph: four years after the illegal annexation of the peninsula here was proof that Crimea would be Russian for ever.
This morning’s daring attack on the road and rail bridge was an even louder statement: a direct blow to Putin’s authority and one that signals that Crimea itself may be next on Kyiv’s agenda. The blast destroyed at least two of the bridge’s concrete spans and caused part of the roadway to fall into the sea.
Anti-terrorism officials in Moscow blamed a “bomb”, apparently hidden in a lorry driven over from the Russian side. Politicians in Kyiv did not take
