Ukraine Russia war today: Strikes ‘kill 17’ in Zaporizhzhia after Crimea bridge blown up

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Fire blazes on only bridge connecting Crimea to Russia after explosion

At least 17 people in Zaporizhzhia were killed overnight when homes were attacked by airstrikes attributed to Russia, according to a city official.

At least 49 people were hospitalised, including six children, as a result of the shelling in the city in southeast Ukraine.

The region’s governor Oleksandr Starukh said that a nine-storey building was partially destroyed overnight, five other residential buildings levelled and others damaged in 12 Russian missile.

“There may be more people under the rubble,” he said on the Telegram messaging app. “A rescue operation is underway at the scene. Eight people have already been rescued.”

Earlier, city official Anatoliy Kurtev said at least 17 people were killed when missiles hit a high-rise apartment complex and buildings.

On Saturday, three people were killed when the 12-mile-long Kerch Strait bridge in the annexed region of Crimea came under attack.

Neither side has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Crimea’s Russian governor Sergei Aksyonov said: “Of course, emotions have been triggered and there is a healthy desire to seek revenge.”

Key PointsShow latest update 1665312071Slovakia sends more tanks to Ukraine ‘as present for Putin’

Slovakia has sent new tanks to Ukraine to help in the war effort, as a ‘birthday present’ for Vladimir Putin.

Minister of Defense for the Slovak Republic Jaro Nad posted pictures of the weapons on Twitter, adding that there would be more to come.

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 11:41

1665309027

Ukraine has posted new pictures of the devastation caused by an attack on Zaporizhzhia.

At least 17 people were killed in the assault.

A government spokesman said that if Ukraine had modern Western anti-missile systems, deaths could have been avoided.

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 10:50

1665307827 Russia has ‘healthy desire for revenge’ after Crimea bridge

Russian divers are to examine the damage from the Crimea bridge blast today.

Saturday’s explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no claim of responsibility.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said the divers would start working in the morning, with a more detailed survey above the waterline expected to be complete by day’s end, domestic news agencies reported.

“The situation is manageable – it’s unpleasant, but not fatal,” Crimea’s Russian governor, Sergei Aksyonov, told reporters. “Of course, emotions have been triggered and there is a healthy desire to seek revenge.”

The peninsula had a month’s worth of fuel and more than two months’ worth of food, he said. Russia’s defense ministry said its forces in southern Ukraine could be “fully supplied” through existing land and sea routes.

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 10:30

1665306627Crimea blast ‘will touch personally’

The explosion on the Crimea Bridge will likely touch Vladimir Putin ‘personally’ the UK has claimed.

In its morning update on the Ukraine war, the Ministry of Justice said the blast could have a significant impact on its forces in southern Ukraine.

The statement on Twitter said: “Two of the four carriageways if the roadway have collapsed in several places over a length of approximately 250m.

“The extent of the damage to the rail crossing is uncertain, but any serious disruption to its capacity will highly likely have a significant impact on Russia’s already strained ability to sustain its forces southern Ukraine.

“The rail crossing was only opened to freight in June 202, but the line has played a key role in ,movi ng heavy military vehicles to the southern front during the invasion.

“This incident will likely touch President Putin closely; it came hours after his 70th birthday, he personally sponsored and opened the bridge, and its construction contractor was his childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg.

“In recent months, Putin’s former bodyguard, now commander of the Russian National Guard, Viktor Zolatov, had provided public assurances about the security of the bridge.”

(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 10:10

1665305427Vladimir tightens infrastructure security after Putin blast on Russia-Crimea bridge

Vladimir Putin tightens infrastructure security after blast on Russia-Crimea bridge

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 09:50

1665304227Transport services on Crimea bridge are resuming after blast

Train and automobile traffic over the bridge was suspended temporarily. Automobile traffic resumed Saturday afternoon on one of the two links that remained intact, with the flow alternating in each direction, said Crimea’s Russia-backed leader, Sergey Aksyonov.

Rail traffic was resuming slowly. Two passenger trains left the Crimean cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol and headed toward the bridge Saturday evening.

Passenger ferry links between Crimea and the Russian mainland are being relaunched Sunday.

While Russia seized areas north of Crimea early in its invasion of Ukraine and built a land corridor to it along the Sea of ​​Azov, Ukraine is pressing a counteroffensive to reclaim that territory.

That Russian-held territory along the sea includes the Zaporizhzhia region.

The Crimean Peninsula is a popular destination for Russian tourists and home to a Russian naval base. A Russian tourist association estimated that 50,000 tourists were in Crimea on Saturday.

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 09:30

1665303027Zelensky alludes to explosion at nightly address

Volodymyr Zelensky indirectly acknowledged the bridge attack in his video address on Saturday evening but did not address its cause.

“Today was not a bad day and mostly sunny on our state’s territory,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea. Although it was also warm.”

The president said Ukraine wants a future “without occupiers. Throughout our territory, in particular in Crimea.”

Mr Zelensky also said Ukrainian forces advanced or held the line in the east and south, but acknowledged “very, very difficult, very tough fighting” around the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have claimed recent gains.

(Office of the President of Ukraine)

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 09:10

1665301827No one has claimed credit for bridge blast

No one has claimed responsibility for the Crimea bridge attack, but it was a significant blow to Russia and could lead to an escalation of the conflict.

Some Russian lawmakers called for Putin to declare a “counterterrorism operation,” rather than the term “special military operation” that has downplayed the scope of fighting to ordinary Russians. Putin signed a decree late Saturday tightening security for the bridge and for energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia, and put Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, in charge of the effort. Hours after the explosion, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that the air force chief, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, would now command all Russian troops in Ukraine.

Surovikin, who this summer was placed in charge of troops in southern Ukraine, had led Russian forces in Syria and was accused of overseeing a bombardment that destroyed much of Aleppo. The 12-mile Kerch Bridge, on a strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov, is a symbol of Moscow’s claims on Crimea and an essential link to the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The $3.6 billion bridge, the longest in Europe, is vital to sustaining Russia’s military operations in southern Ukraine. Putin himself presided over the bridge’s opening in 2018.

This satellite image shows damage to the Kerch Bridge

(© Maxar Technologies)

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 08:50

1665300336At least 17 killed in attack on Zaporizhzhia

A Russian barrage pounded apartment buildings and other targets in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens, officials said Sunday.

The blasts in the city, which sits in a Moscow region has claimed as its own, blew out windows in adjacent buildings and left at least one high-rise apartment building partially collapsed.

The strike came after an explosion Saturday caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia, damaging an important supply for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine and hitting a towering symbol of Russian power in the region.

City council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev said rockets struck Zaporizhzhia overnight, and that at least five private houses were destroyed and around 40 were damaged.

The Ukrainian military also confirmed the attack, saying there were dozens of consequences.

In recent weeks, Russia has repeatedly struck the southern city, which is in the Ukrainian controlled-part of a region that Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed in violation of international law last week.

At least 14 people died in Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings in Zaporizhzhia on Thursday.A part of the region currently in Russian control is home to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Fighting has repeatedly imperiled the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, and Ukrainian authorities shut down its last operating reactor last month to prevent a radiation disaster.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said Saturday that the Zaporizhzhia plant has since lost its last remaining external power source as a result of renewed shelling and is now relying on emergency diesel generators.

Sam Rkaina9 October 2022 08:25

1665268388Nato must do more in face of Putin’s ‘delusions of grandeur’, says German defense minister

Nato must do more to protect itself against Russia because we “cannot know how far Putin’s delusions of grandeur can go”, Germany’s defense minister Christine Lambrecht has claimed

“The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is getting more and more brutal and unscrupulous … Russia’s threat of nuclear weapons shows that Russian authorities have no scruples,” Ms Lambrech said while visiting German troops in Lithuania.

“We stand by our allies”, Ms Lambrecht added. “We’ve heard Russia’s threats to Lithuania which was implementing European sanctions on the border with Kaliningrad. This is not nearly the first threats and we must take them seriously and be prepared.”

Andy Gregory8 October 2022 23:33

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