Blast damages only bridge linking Russia and Crimea; Zelenskyy advisor calls it ‘the beginning’

This video grab taken and released on Oct. 8, 2022 shows thick black smoke rising from a fire on the Kerch bridge that links Crimea to Russia.

There was a fire on the only bridge linking mainland Russia to the occupied peninsula.

The national anti-terrorism committee said that a truck exploded on the side of the bridge at 6:07 a.m., causing the road to partially collapse.

Black smoke could be seen rising into the sky from the fire that set seven oil tanker cars ablaze.

One of Putin's prestige projects is the Kerch bridge. He ordered it to be built in order to support Moscow's claim to the territory.

The 19-kilometer (12-mile) crossing is a pair of road and rail bridges that Russia uses to move military equipment into Ukraine.

A screen grab from a surveillance footage shows flames and smoke rising up after an explosion at the Kerch bridge in the Kerch Strait, Crimea, Oct. 8, 2022.

One day after Putin's 70th birthday and at a time when the Kremlin's months-long invasion of Ukraine has incurred a string of humiliations, a truck explosion is reported.

Videos and images shared on social media showed the scale of the fire.

CNBC couldn't verify the authenticity of the reports.

The head of the Russian-installed regional parliament in Crimea blamed the incident on Ukrainian vandals who had reached their bloody hands to the bridge.

An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the damage was the beginning.

The beginning isCrimea. Podolyak said that everything illegal must be destroyed, and that everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.

The official account of the Ukrainian government seemed to respond to the incident by saying that it was sick.

People pose for photographs in front of a picture of a postage stamp showing an artists impression of the Kerch bridge on fire on Oct. 8, 2022 in central Kyiv, Ukraine.

Russian media reported that traffic had been stopped and emergency and road service personnel were at the scene of the fire.

A fuel storage tank is on fire. The arches were undamaged. It's too soon to talk about causes and consequences. The aide to the Russian occupation head of the peninsula said that work to extinguish the fire was underway.

Hours before the incident, Russia launched a series of attacks on areas ofUkraine it illegally annexed.

Putin declared four new regions of Russia late last month as Moscow annexed five Ukrainian regions.

It will not stop fighting until it has regained all of the land it lost to Russia.

Moscow claims it has the right to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory and citizens if it feels there is a threat to its existence.