Everyone is talking about the Crimean bridge explosion on Saturday morning – now also Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Ukraine is continuing its counter-offensive. Important progress continues to be made in the Luhansk region. What happened on Sunday.
According to its own statements, Ukraine has recaptured seven towns in the Luhansk region in the east of the country, which is largely occupied by Russia. These included the villages of Novolyubiwka and Grekivka, wrote the Ukrainian head of administration for Luhansk, Serhiy Hajday, on Telegram on Sunday.
The conquests are important because it shows that the advance to the east continues. The troops continue to advance from the recaptured Lyman in the direction of the strategically very important Svatove and also in the direction of Lysychansk and Sieverodonetsk.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had already spoken of six liberated Luhansk towns on Friday. However, since these still had to be secured after the Russian troops were driven out, the details could only be given now, said Hajdaj.
In the course of its counter-offensive, the Ukrainian army has made considerable gains in territory in recent weeks, particularly in the eastern region of Kharkov. According to Zelenskyy’s statements, a total of 2434 square kilometers and 96 settlements have been brought back under Ukrainian control so far.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the Ukrainian secret service SBU for the massive 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,” said the Kremlin chief on Sunday evening. Kyiv has not yet admitted involvement in the attack. Russian citizens and foreign states helped with the preparations, said the head of the national investigative agency, Alexander Bastrykin, at the meeting with Putin, from which the state media published video clips.
The heavy explosion on the only connecting bridge between Russia and the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula raised international fears of a further escalation of the conflict. In an initial reaction on Saturday, the national investigative committee announced that a truck loaded with explosives coming from the Russian side had exploded on the bridge. As a result of the detonation, several tank wagons of a freight train filled with diesel caught fire on the higher railway bridge. As a result, three people died.
The Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia, which was recently dependent on emergency generators, is back on the grid. This was “temporary relief in a situation that is still untenable,” wrote the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, on Twitter on Sunday evening. After renewed bombing raids, the plant was completely disconnected from the power grid on Saturday. According to Grossi, “the only external power source” in the plant was hit.
Although the six reactors of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant are currently shut down, they rely on electricity for cooling, among other things. Grossi advocates a protection zone around the nuclear power plant occupied by Russia.
There have been repeated military attacks on the nuclear power plant, for which Russia and Ukraine blame each other. A few days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the nuclear power plant under Russian administration.
For Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner Irina Sherbakova, there is only one possible end to the war in Ukraine. “I am convinced that this war can only end with a victory for Ukraine,” said the historian on Sunday in a speech on democracy on the anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig. Only this will bring peace back to Europe. Sherbakova is the co-founder of the human rights organization Memorial, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
“We receive the award with a heavy heart, because one has to admit that we have not achieved our goal – to come to terms with the crimes of the Soviet state so that they don’t happen again,” said Sherbakova. “We now have to reflect on why our voices were too weak, why Russian society didn’t want to listen to us when we talked about crimes and atrocities (…),” said Sherbakova. As in the Soviet era, there are now again atrocities – in Bucha, Izyum or other Ukrainian places.
When Putin came to power in Russia, he quickly abolished democracy and at least severely restricted civil liberties. Now Putin wants military control – and he is prepared to make any sacrifice to achieve this.
Shortly after the explosion on the bridge, the Russian army attacked targets in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published pictures of badly damaged high-rise buildings in Zaporizhia on his Telegram channel. According to Ukrainian sources, 12 people were killed and 49 injured. Selenskyj spoke of “absolute evil”; the “terrorists” would be held accountable from the commander to the perpetrator. Unlike large parts of the region of the same name, the city of Zaporizhia is not controlled by Russian troops. She has been the target of multiple attacks. According to Ukrainian military information, the Russian troops are said to have fired at least twelve rockets at residential buildings. There was no Russian confirmation for this.
In the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson, the Russian occupiers, under pressure from Ukrainian counter-offensives, prepared to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians. After the numerous defeats in their war of aggression, Russia changed the commander of the army.
Around seven and a half months after the war began, Russia’s domestic secret service FSB accused Ukraine of more than 100 attacks on Russian territory – since the beginning of October alone. The FSB announced on Sunday that a total of 32 towns in the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions bordering Ukraine had been shelled in the past few days. The number of attacks has recently increased significantly. This could not be verified independently.
One person was killed and five others injured in the attacks, Moscow said.
Since the beginning of the war, which Russia itself began by invading Ukraine at the end of February, Moscow has repeatedly complained about the shelling of areas near the border by Ukraine. However, the number of victims on the Russian side bears no relation to the devastating consequences of the war in Ukraine. Kyiv usually does not respond to the allegations.
Crimean bridge explosion: what we know and don’t know
The European Union wants to train up to 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers in EU countries next winter. This is reported by the “Welt am Sonntag”. The headquarters should therefore be in Germany and Poland. It is also about nuclear defense. The Ukrainian soldiers are to receive training in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, it is said. Training for cyber attacks is also planned. Germany is primarily responsible for mine clearance and tactical aspects.
Divers from Russia are scheduled to investigate the damage to the Crimean Bridge today, Russian news agencies report. The investigators should therefore be finished with their work by Sunday evening.
The Russian secret service (FSB) is also said to be checking the Crimean bridge more closely. Officially, the FSB was not responsible at all. So far, the task has been shared between the Ministry of Defence, the National Guard and the Ministry of Transport. Only after the explosion did Putin instruct the secret service by decree to tighten control over the damaged Crimean bridge. “The FSB will be given powers to organize and coordinate protective measures for the transport route across the Kerch Strait, for the power bridge of the Russian Federation to the Crimea peninsula and the gas pipeline from Krasnodar Territory to Crimea,” the decree said.
It is the first action taken by the Kremlin after the morning’s suspected attack-induced explosion. However, the Russian President did not want to comment publicly. According to official information, Putin will not speak to the Russians in the next few days either. Such an appearance is not planned, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday. Political observers had considered the president’s speech likely given the severe damage to the bridge. In the past, Moscow had threatened Kyiv with serious consequences in the event of an attempted attack on the object.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not revealed his country’s involvement 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. He then asked the Russians once more to surrender and flee. This is her best option to stay alive. There will be a future without occupiers in Ukraine. “All over our territory, especially in Crimea,” he said.
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.
Prior to Zelensky, several high-ranking politicians close to the Ukrainian president had fueled speculation that Kiev was involved in the crime. Ukraine’s Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov posted footage of the partially destroyed structure linking Russia and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, on Facebook on Saturday. He also posted a video showing Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) singing the birthday song “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to then-US President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 70th birthday on Friday.
The adviser to the presidential office, Mykhailo Podoliak, initially tweeted: “Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine.” A few hours later he rowed back with cryptic statements. He portrayed the attack as a competition between the Russian army and the FSB secret service. The FSB was trying to replace the army leadership and was now suddenly struck down because it had overslept the attack on the bridge. “Isn’t it obvious who caused the explosion?” he indulged in conspiracy theories.
After a Russian rocket attack in the center of the city of Zaporizhia, the death toll has increased, according to Ukrainian sources. At least 17 people were killed, including a child, the Ukrainian state emergency service said on the online service Telegram. On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities had already corrected the number of deaths to 14.
The city of Zaporizhia, controlled by Ukrainian units, is located in the region of the same name, in which the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is also located. Moscow annexed the region earlier this week, although it is not fully under Russian troops’ control. By decree, Russian President Vladimir Putin also placed the nuclear power plant under Russian administration on Wednesday.
The Russian troops in Ukraine, meanwhile, have a new commander after numerous defeats in their war of aggression. The 55-year-old Army General Sergei Surovikin was deployed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to lead the “military special operation”, said ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov in Moscow on Saturday. According to commentators, Shoigu is accommodating his critics, who in view of the defeats had called for the troops in Ukraine to be regrouped.
At the same time, under pressure from Ukrainian counter-offensives, the Russian occupiers are preparing to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians in the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson annexed by Moscow. Among other things, the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Stavropol are ready to take in children and adults, wrote the head of the occupation of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
Officially, the Russian authorities are still investigating the explosion at the Crimean bridge. If there are already first results on Sunday, an official – and possibly military – reaction from Moscow could follow. More heavy fighting is expected at the front in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Also Read: The Ukraine Update on October 8th
