till the 21st on d w ah ah, this is dw newswire from berlin, russia's bridge to crimea in flames. the structure suffer as extensive damage after a massive explosion. we'll have the latest from our correspondence. meanwhile, ukraine continues to push back russian forces, bonds of parting troops leave behind another, a grim reminder of their occupation ukrainians discover hundreds of bodies in the eastern town of lima and canada. they are as leaders of iran,

revolutionary guard. prime minister just introduce says the measure will raise pressure on to ron over its cracked down on mass protest. falling the death of a woman in police custody. and a new chapter in the musical history of liverpool. why the eurovision song contest is coming to the birthplace of the beatles? ah, a married evans dean, welcome. we begin with breaking news. the branch connecting crimea to russia has been hit by a large explosion. ukrainian media reported a blast early in the morning. local time. russians, state news, media claim a truck bomb exploded on the road, span of the branch, igniting several fuel tanks. on the railways span russian president, i mean,

the teen opened the bridge in 2018 after russia illegally annex the ukrainian peninsula. on verified social media video appears to show that a section of the road span has collapsed due to the blast. d w corresponding mathias berringer is in ukraine city of nikolai, of and he told us more about the explosion on the crimean bridge. yeah, you said it parts of the road bridge have collapsed and there is a road bridge and railway bridge next to each other. and the railway bridge is in flames because it seems that a fuel a fuel train has been hit. and now these, this fuel is burning, the damage is extensive, the bridge is out of use. now the russian occupational authorities have said that they are going to introduce a ferry service at this point. crimea is,

is basically cut off from the russian mainland via this route. there is, of course, still the so called land bridge, the territories and russia has conquered in the past few months that connected to russia. but this is a, quite a severe damage. and the consequences will probably be felt through this war or mathias explain it to our viewer is the significance of this bridge. just how important is it for russia, both strategically and also politically when russia and next crimea, they had no connection to this island, the territory that what crimea is a peninsula and the territory that's on the other side, or that it's linked to, is ukrainian and was controlled by ukraine at the time of this,

this bridge was the main supply route to crimea. it's also been the main supply route for military equipment in this more that military equipment that was going to the southern front. russia has conquered the patch of land along the is off c. that is also connecting right now crimea, to the russian to russia. but this is much more, it's much more difficult to bring in equipment via there. so this strike and ukraine has said for a long time that the bridge, which it considers an illegal cons in eagle construction, is a target for ukraine. and this will have significant this will have significant impact on the supply lines on the russian supply lines. of course, the russians should have expected that and might of taking some precautions like stock piling, munitions, for example, in crimea,

but it will make it much more difficult for them to supply their troops in the south. we have an offensive in the south going on a counter offensive by ukraine, which is taking back territories. and this will make it much more difficult for russia to bring in new supplies. and it might weaken the russian troops, the occupational troops considerably. no more use the initial explanation from russia is that this explosion was caused by a fuel tank catching fire. is that a likely cause of this explosion? we know that a fuel tank has caught fire, but it's not likely that this is the cause. if you look at the pictures, you see part of the road that part of the road bridge that is next to these fuel tanks. these fuel tanks were a train this part has collapsed and the fuel

tank, the part of the bridge where the fuel tank is burning, has not collapsed. so something must have caused this to collapse, not what it was. we don't know, and we might not know any time soon because ukraine is usually very secretive about this kind of strikes. but we know that ukraine has the means to attack territory deep behind the lines. we've seen a tax on an air field on crimea that's about as far from the lines as these bridge . and it is very likely that this strike was done actually by the ukrainian military dw mathias billing and reporting for us from the korean city. of nikolai of mathias. thank you so much. will the w is no longer able to report from within russia because the authorities withdrew our accreditation. so i corresponding killian buyer is following the russian reaction to the incident in crimea from brooklyn, in lithuania, hello to you,

killian. so tell us what you are hearing from russian sources. well, we're actually hearing a contradicting reports. first of all, it was said that a fuel tank had blown up on this freight train, which was traveling over the bridge. and so it's important to note the bridge, the bridge going over the strait of coach has a train line which is separate. and then there is a dual carriageway with 2 lines in both directions. and so what we, what we see indeed that the train is burning and russian official said that the train was at so that the fuel tank had caught fire. and now they've come out and said that there has been a car bomb. in fact, to be more precise. m a truck has exploded and they're blaming at the ukrainians for, for this attack. so an official from crimea said that it was ukrainian vandals who caused this in an attempt to destroy everything that russia has built. right,

so how much of a set back is this attack for the russian government? well, as mathias said already, this is a major setback. it, of course, comes at a very bad time where russia has illegally annexed apartments, more parts of ukraine and like, but you said as well, you know, crimea was important and this bridge was of strategic value for supporting russian troops in the south. the southern part of the invasion of ukraine was actually staged from crimea. it will be, it will, we will have to see how the in the fighting and her son it will be continuing. because i think it will be extremely difficult for the russian military to support these troops. now that at this bridge has effectively been cut, at least partially for now, even though some rough russian officials have said that the damage has not been

great from the am. on a, on verified footage, we have seen on the internet that there has indeed been a segment of the road that has collapsed. so it does look to be quite a quite significant damage. and killian, what about the people who live in crimea? what does an attack on this bridge mean for them? and in particular, for those of the population that are pro russia well, you know, the crimea was kind of left out of the war. you could say for the 1st months of the war, russian tourists went to crimea to go on holiday there. and then we saw forced strikes on russian air bases. and there was quite a bit of panic. we saw long traffic jams of people leaving. i, i imagine it's very disconcerting now for the people who were on crimea to have been cut off. this bridge was also of high symbolic value. president putin opened

the bridge in 2018. i actually remember the pictures of him driving in an orange, lori, over in a long convoy over this bridge, it symbolized a home coming of crimea to you, to, to russia, to the motherland. and now this link has been cut and a people trying to go back to mainland. russia will either have to take a ferry service, which is going to be implemented the cause, according to the russian officials or trouble through the war torn a new regions of russia, so to say, which have just been illegally annexed from ukraine. so i imagine it is a disconcerting for these people. the devil is killian buyer can and thank you so much for your reporting. and for some analysis, we can now speak to mike martin. he is a worse than his fellow at king's college in london. hello to you, mike. so as we've been hearing for a correspondence, a lot of contradictory i,

explanations from russian source is saying 1st, the fuel tank on fire and now there are reports that it was a, as a truck bomb. what do you make a bow of this explosion on the crimean bridge? what explanation do you think is the most possible one? i will, isn't it almost certainly an attack by the economy forces? ah, it's it. the bridge is out of the artillery range of the, of the missile systems that ukraine has. so it's not that. and so that leaves us some sorts of special forces or sabotage raid. there are only really 2 options for that. one is the truck bomb that the russians seem to be talking about. the other is, is something on a boat to do that much damage. you need to move significant amounts of explosive into position. so those are your 2 options, really, but it was absolutely done by the cranium forces. and why do you

think an attack like this was not stopped by russian air defenses or some other method of pro prob, preventing an attack of this scale. and that very significant bridge but you could, you could ask the same question about any number of ukrainian attacks recently, what we've seen over the last 34 months isn't ukrainians, have consistently out thought the russians and they've out fought them as well. and so i think most people expected the current bridge to come under attack. ah, but perhaps later on in the war apps when the ukrainians have made more advance in the south or perhaps re taken some turgeon dumbass. but actually what the credit is very good at is keeping everybody guessing. and so they've clearly decided that there's both symbolic and logistical advantage to dropping the bridge now. and so they've dropped it. the russian simply wants expecting it. then tell us

a bit more about this strategic air significance and also the symbolic significance. i mean, how much of a detriment is it going to be to russia's military effort, having this bridge damaged and what is it due to russian morale. great question. i'm so the russian military relies on railways for a lot of it supplies. there's various historical reasons for that, but it's, it's very important fact. now, if we look at the russians in crimea, and in her song which we've had a lot about recently, there are only 2 rail links that moved from russia into that area. and one is on the coast bridge that we've just seen destroyed. and the other one runs just north of meat. oh, which is that city? i'm in the saw on in the south, on the, on the coast of the black sea. and about 2 days ago the cranium started attacking the front lines are only about such gums as white sauce, attacking with artillery the russian railway lines there in

a place called talk mac, now they've dropped the bridge. so the ukrainians, clearly isolating the russian forces from their supplies in terms of symbolism. i'm the digests of russian tv tonight. they're going to be absolutely fascinating. this bridge has putin's name all over it. it's the symbolism of his projects. and this comes at a time where there's already been lots of factions, maneuvering in moscow, blaming the military, blaming the vall degree blaming putin. the blame game started and such a symbolic attack by the ukrainians is only going to accelerate that. now you mentioned how important this bridge is for vladimir putin personally. and i know he is threatened in the past that if the bridge would be targeted by ukrainian forces, then here would then be the

a direct target in retaliation. so are we likely to see a direct attack on kids now by russian forces? but keith has been, it's all good throughout the war. it was under direct ground. so for the 1st 6 weeks of the war and has been under intermittent air and miss halifax since then over the last month or so, we've seen the injection of russian suicide drones in cities like odessa. i don't see how it's acting. this bridge is going to change the russian attacks on places like keys and anyway, the way we should view attacks on civilians on cities is of russian impotence. in military terms, attacking civilians is a illegal and b doesn't help in your military effort. you should be attacking your opponents military forces. so i don't think this is going to have a great effect on, on what we're going to do. it's another empty threat from putin that was mike martin, worse than his fellow at king's college in london. mike,

thank you so much for all of your in.