Hours After Putin Turns 70, Bridge Between Russia and Crimea Ignites: ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’

“This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure,” Putin said of the bridge that symbolized Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea

A bridge linking Russia and the Crimean Peninsula was the center of an explosion on Saturday when a truck blew up and collapsed a section of it. The bridge sits over the Kerch Strait, which is a supply route for Moscow’s forces in Ukraine and is part of the port of Sevastopol, the location of the Russian Black Sea fleet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the explosion an “act of terrorism” from Ukraine on Sunday, two days after his 70th birthday, despite Ukraine officials not claiming responsibility for the attack, reported Reuters.

“There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure,” Putin said on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel alongside Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, per Reuters. “This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services.”

Video of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge https://t.co/35LykeeW3M pic.twitter.com/6JGIzg7ctH via @RALee85 pic.twitter.com/vh378MVINq

— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) October 8, 2022

The explosion partially destroyed the bridge — with images of the aftermath showing a chunk of the bridge sitting in the water — and lit fuel tanks of a train on fire. Russia’s Investigative Committee shared in a statement obtained by NBC News that three people died in the blast, including a man and a woman whose bodies were found in the water. Work to repair the bridge, which is a symbol of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, will begin immediately and officials reopened it partially on Saturday.

Ukrainian officials, nearly eight months after Russia first invaded the country, have been sharing some positive messages about the explosion but have not taken responsibility for it. Among them, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, used the phrase “the beginning” in a Twitter statement featuring the bridge.

“Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything that is stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,” he wrote.

Podolyak later responded to Putin’s claims of terrorism, saying that “there is only one terrorist state here, and the whole world knows who it is.” As he noted, Putin’s statement came after a Russian missile attack struck an apartment block and other residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, and killed at least 13 people and injured “more than 50.”

Доброго ранку, Україно! 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/UQMI6LheSR

— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) October 8, 2022

Following the explosion, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, posted the clip of Marilyn Monroe singing happy birthday to U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1962. The video was shared side-by-side with a clip of the explosion aftermath, seemingly as a nod to Putin’s birthday, and included the caption “good morning, Ukraine.”

The bridge itself, which cost $3.6 billion and is the longest in Europe at 12 miles long, was opened by Putin in May 2018 when he led several trucks across it and drove one on his own.

Just as recently as Thursday, President Joe Biden issued a warning about Putin, when he said that the Russian leader is “not joking” about nuclear threats. The way he explained it, the world has “not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

“First time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat of the use [of a] nuclear weapon if in fact, things continue down the path they are going,” Biden said at a New York City fundraiser. “I’m trying to figure out what is Putin’s off ramp?”

The Russian attack on Ukraine is an evolving story, with information changing quickly. Follow PEOPLE’s complete coverage of the war here, including stories from citizens on the ground and ways to help.