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Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova issued an extraordinary attack on the US and UK in the wake of the partial destruction of the Crimean Bridge which left one 14-year-old girl injured and killed her parents.
Without providing corroborating evidence, Ms Zakharova accused Ukraine of being behind the explosions that damaged the key infrastructure, known as Kerch Bridge, linking the Moscow-held Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar.
Astonishingly, she also accused Washington and London of being involved, as she said: “Today’s attack on the Crimean bridge was carried out by the Kyiv regime.
“This regime is terrorist and has all the hallmarks of an international organized crime group.
“Decisions are made by Ukrainian officials and the military with the direct participation of American and British intelligence agencies and politicians. The US and Britain are in charge of a terrorist state structure.”
This comes hours after the Russian-installed head of the Crimean parliament had already claimed Ukraine was behind the incident, which killed two people.
The Russian official, Vladimir Konstantinov, was reported by state RIA news agency lashing out at what he called Ukraine‘s “terrorist regime”.
Kyiv, he alleged, had committed a “new crime” by targeting “civilian” infrastructure.
The Ukrainian government hasn’t officially claimed responsibility for the incident, but several Ukrainian sources have since claimed it was an attack carried out by Kyiv’s navy and its security service (SBU).
However, Suspilne also quoted a navy spokesperson claiming he had no information regarding the incident and the involvement of underwater drones and urging the broadcaster to wait for official announcements.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence department, Andriy Yusov, has spoken about the incident that took place in the early hours of Monday.
While he didn’t claim Ukraine was behind the incident, he acknowledged the destruction of the bridge would create issues for Russian occupation forces.
He said: “The peninsula is used by the Russians as a large logistical hub for moving forces and assets deep into the territory of Ukraine. Of course, any logistical problems are additional complications for the occupiers.”
