According to Russian authorities, a fire broke out on the bridge between the Russian-occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and the Russian mainland.

A fuel wagon was apparently on fire, according to photos shared by Russian and Ukrainian media on Saturday.

The roadway on the part of the road was therefore also massively damaged.

After the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine at the end of February, there were several explosions in Crimea, causing severe damage, including at military bases.

"For the time being there are no injuries," Crimean leadership adviser Oleg Kryuchkov said, according to Russian media.

The fire is said to have started in a cistern at the end of a freight train.

The locomotive and several wagons went to Kerch, it said.

According to the Russian authorities, a car bomb exploded, triggering the major fire.

Traffic has stopped.

The government in Simferopol announced that a ferry connection was being examined.

According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed of the fire on Saturday.

He instructed a commission to investigate the causes of the fire, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, according to the Interfax agency.

Longest building in Europe

There were repeated threats in the capital Kyiv that the bridge between the peninsula and the Russian mainland, inaugurated by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, would be fired upon.

Most recently, in the Kerch region, which borders directly on the bridge in Crimea, there have been repeated incidents with drones exploding.

Russia had issued a strong warning against shelling the bridge - a key strategic structure - and threatened to target command centers in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv if it did.

The Ukrainian leadership had repeatedly requested long-range heavy weapons from the West.

This should then also destroy the bridge, as it was said in Kyiv.

With a length of 19 kilometers, the Crimean bridge system, which has a motorway and a railway line next to it, is the longest structure in Europe.

Kremlin boss Putin opened it himself in 2018 and also rode on a train.

Passenger trains have been running since the end of 2019, freight trains since summer 2020.

The spokeswoman for the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny shared a video of the fire and the damage on social networks - and commented that it was probably a present for Putin's 70th birthday.

The head of the Kremlin celebrated the anniversary on Friday in his hometown of St. Petersburg.