The Crimean bridge is partially destroyed. After a massive explosion, the bridge important to Putin caught fire. This has a major impact on Russia’s military operations. The Ukrainian secret service is said to be responsible for the incident. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.
4:47 a.m .: The UN General Assembly begins deliberations on Monday on the recent illegal annexations of parts of Ukraine by Russia. At the end of the session, which could drag on until Wednesday due to the large number of speakers, the UN body, the largest with 193 member states, is to vote on a resolution condemning Moscow. Russia had previously advocated a secret ballot – apparently in the hope of a better result. High-ranking diplomats describe this as an unprecedented operation that is unlikely to receive sufficient support.
Just a few days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin completed the annexations of the partially occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Cherson with his signature.
As expected, a condemning resolution in the UN Security Council tabled by the US and other countries was blocked by a veto by Moscow. The process then moved to the General Assembly. According to diplomats, it needs the support of two-thirds of the countries voting for it to be passed by the body.
In a draft resolution available to the German Press Agency, Russia’s actions are condemned as aggression and “violation of the sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine”. The referendums are illegal, have “no validity under international law and do not form a basis for changing the status of these regions of Ukraine,” it said. Russia is violating the UN charter, must reverse its actions and withdraw from Ukraine.
A clear majority is expected when the UN General Assembly votes, but the text will have to measure itself against two previous results: In March, the assembly rejected Russia’s invasion with a historic majority of 141 votes. In 2014, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, 100 member states committed to a resolution emphasizing Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Western diplomats stressed that every UN member country must have a self-interest in condemning Russia in order not to become a victim of illegal annexation by a neighboring state. On the other hand, observers have been seeing war fatigue in a number of countries, especially in Africa and Latin America, for some time now. Some of them find that the Ukraine war distracts from other regional conflicts and global crises and blocks progress.
01:26: According to the head of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, the West should not be deterred by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats. “We have to take Putin’s nuclear threats seriously, but they must not determine our actions,” the CSU politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Instead, decisions in connection with the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine should be guided by “basic principles such as human rights, a state’s right to self-defense and the rule-based system of values,” said Weber.
The Kremlin has repeatedly indirectly threatened to use nuclear weapons in connection with the war of aggression in Ukraine. For example, Putin had announced that he would use all available means to protect Russia. US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that after the threats from the Kremlin, the risk of a nuclear confrontation with catastrophic consequences was higher than it had been in 60 years. However, the US government has no evidence that Putin made a decision to use nuclear weapons.
Monday, October 10, 12:20 a.m.: After the heavy explosion on the Crimean bridge, Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev called for those responsible to be killed. “All reports and conclusions are made. Russia’s response to this crime can only be the direct annihilation of the terrorists,” said Medvedev, who is now deputy of the Russian Security Council, in an interview with Kremlin-affiliated journalist Nadana Friedrichson on Sunday evening. “This is what the citizens of Russia are waiting for,” he said before a Security Council meeting this Monday that will be chaired by President Vladimir Putin.
On Saturday morning, an explosion shook the 19-kilometer bridge that connects Russia and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Around seven and a half months after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the building, which is strategically and symbolically important for Russia, was severely damaged. According to official information from Moscow, three people died.
Putin has blamed the Ukrainian secret service SBU for the attack. The SBU headquarters is located in the city center in Kyiv. The power center in Moscow has repeatedly threatened to target command posts in the Ukrainian capital if the shelling of Russian territory does not stop.
11:55 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed the impossibility of negotiations with Russia. “The constant terror against the civilian population is Russia’s obvious rejection of real negotiations,” said Zelenskyj in his video message on Monday night. “Terror at state level is one of the worst international crimes.” Shortly before, Russian President Vladimir Putin had blamed the Ukrainian secret service for the recent attack on the Crimean bridge and spoke of an “act of terrorism”.
“Putin accuses Ukraine of terrorism? That looks too cynical even for Russia,” Ukrainian presidential office adviser Mykhailo Podoliak responded on Twitter. Podoliak referred to recent rocket attacks in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia, which is believed to have killed more than a dozen people. “No, there is only one terrorist state – and the whole world knows who it is.”
On Saturday morning, an explosion shook the 19-kilometer bridge that connects Russia and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Around seven and a half months after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Putin’s strategically and symbolically important project was severely damaged. According to official information from Moscow, three people died. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
7:41 p.m .: Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the Ukrainian secret service SBU for the heavy explosion on the Crimean bridge. “There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critical civil infrastructure in the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin chief said on Sunday evening. Kyiv has not yet admitted involvement in the attack.
Russian citizens and foreign states helped prepare the terrorist attack, said the head of the national investigative agency, Alexander Bastrykin, at the meeting with Putin, from which the state media published video clips. The Kremlin has announced that Putin will meet with the Russian National Security Council this Monday. A reaction to the attack could be discussed there.
On Saturday morning, an explosion shook the 19-kilometer bridge that connects Russia and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Around seven and a half months after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Putin’s strategically and symbolically important project was severely damaged. According to official information from Moscow, three people died. In the meantime, rail and car traffic have been completely stopped, but have now largely resumed.
5.45 p.m .: The UN General Assembly will begin deliberations on the recent illegal annexations of parts of Ukraine by Russia on Monday (9 p.m. CEST). At the end of the meeting in New York, which could drag on until Wednesday due to the large number of speakers, the largest UN body with 193 member states is to vote on a resolution condemning Moscow.
Russia had previously called for a secret ballot – apparently in the hope of a better result. High-ranking diplomats describe this as an unprecedented operation that is unlikely to receive sufficient support. Just a few days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin completed the annexations of the partially occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Cherson with his signature.
4:13 p.m .: According to a media report, the federal government wants to support Ukraine with military equipment for the winter. Part of the package are 100,000 warm under jackets and other winter clothing, 100 heatable team tents, hundreds of mobile power generators and pallets of food packages, as the “Spiegel” reported on Sunday. The financial outlay is therefore eleven million euros.
The magazine refers to corresponding requests from the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov to NATO. In a letter to the Secretary General of the western military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, the Ukrainian asked for uniforms for 200,000 soldiers.
In addition, the pressure on the German government to deliver modern tanks to Ukraine has been growing for weeks. During a visit to Lithuania on Saturday, Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) referred to the deliveries of Gepard tanks and tanks of Soviet design in ring exchanges, for example via Greece and Slovakia.
Incidentally, she met Resnikov in Odessa last week, Lambrecht said. It had become clear “what is currently most urgently needed in Ukraine and these are air defense systems”. In the coming days, Germany will therefore deliver the first of four air defense systems.
Sunday, October 9th, 11:30 a.m.: According to British experts, the explosion on the bridge between Russia and the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea should have significantly reduced the capacity of the road connection. Two of the four lanes collapsed over a length of 250 meters. The other two lanes would probably be used again, according to the British Ministry of Defense’s daily intelligence update on the Ukraine war on Sunday.
It is unclear how badly the adjacent rail link is damaged, “but any major disruption to its capacity will most likely have a significant impact on Russia’s already strained ability to resupply its forces in southern Ukraine,” the statement said.
According to British experts, the incident may have affected Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin personally. “It came hours after his 70th birthday, he had personally sponsored and opened the bridge and the contractor in charge was his childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg,” the statement said.
Saturday, October 8, 9:56 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has left open the involvement of his subordinates in the explosion on the Crimean bridge. In Ukraine it was mostly sunny and warm, “unfortunately cloudy in Crimea, although warm there too,” he said in his daily video speech, alluding to the morning detonation on the bridge. He did not go into detail about the incident.
However, he then once again called on the Russians to surrender and flee. This is her best option to stay alive, according to Zelenskyj. There will be a future without occupiers in Ukraine. “All over our territory, especially in Crimea,” he said. The Crimean bridge, which is strategically and symbolically important for Russia, was shaken by a heavy explosion early on Saturday morning. Videos show major destruction. The exact background is still unclear.
According to Zelenskyy, the advance of Ukrainian troops in the east and south continues. However, he gave no information about new conquests. Instead, the head of state highlighted the Donetsk region, a section of the front where the Russians had recently reported successes. The 44-year-old admitted that there was very hard fighting in the Bachmut area. He praised the “resilience” of the brigade holding positions there. The small town of Bakhmut is considered an important pillar in the defensive bulwark around the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk area in the Donetsk region, which is controlled by Kyiv.
You can read more news on the following pages