Putin accuses Ukraine of 'terrorism' in Crimea bridge attack
Senior Russian leaders will meet on Monday for a hastily-arranged Security Council session, to discuss the country's response to a weekend bridge explosion in Crimea.
In a Sunday night video, Vladimir Putin said "there is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure."
"This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukraine special services," he added.
Saturday's explosion tore through a bridge linking Crimea with Russia. The bridge was opened in 2018, and is an imposing symbol of Moscow's illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula.
Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said ahead of Monday's meeting that Russia should kill the "terrorists" responsible for the attack.
"Russia can only respond to this crime by directly killing terrorists, as is the custom elsewhere in the world. This is what Russian citizens expect," he was quoted as saying by Russia's state news agency Tass.
The bridge over the Kerch Strait, Europe's longest, is a major supply route for Moscow's forces in southern Ukraine, and is also a vital artery for the port of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based.
Images showed part of the bridge's roadway blown away, although rail services and partial road traffic resumed.
The Russian transport ministry, quoted by RIA news agency, said nearly 1,500 people and 162 heavy cargoes had travelled by ferry across the Kerch Strait since the explosion.
Russia's defence ministry said its forces in southern Ukraine could be "fully supplied" through existing land and sea routes.
On Sunday, Putin met with Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia's Investigative Committee, who presented findings of an inquiry into what he said was the explosion
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