October 9, 2022 Russia-Ukraine News

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree strengthening the defenses of the only bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland after a huge blast early Saturday severely damaged its structure.

Here's what led up to this:

The blast: A huge explosion severely damaged the only bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland, causing parts of Europe’s longest bridge to collapse. At least three people were were killed, according to Russian officials.

Ukrainian leaders celebrate: While stopping short of claiming responsibility, high-ranking Ukrainian officials publicly celebrated the bridge explosion. Ukraine's secretary of the National Security and Defense Council posted a taunting birthday message for Putin and the postal service announced stamps commemorating the blast. In Kyiv, residents posed for selfies in front of a billboard depicting the burning bridge.

The damage: Maxar satellite images captured the damage to the Kerch Strait bridge Saturday, shortly after an explosion rocked the only direct road and rail connection between annexed Crimea and mainland Russia.

The blast caused parts of the bridge to collapse, though Russian transportation officials restarted rail service and allowed vehicles to use some undamaged portions of the roadway by Saturday evening.

Some travel across the bridge restored: Russian officials rushed to investigate the explosion and restore partial service on the bridge's parallel rail and roadway structures. By evening, limited car traffic resumed on undamaged parts of the bridge and train service had restarted. The blast disrupted major transport links, however, and Russian officials planned to use ferries for trucks.

Repair work to begin: On Saturday, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said the lights on the Crimea bridge were set to be restored in the next few hours so that repair works could be carried out around the clock.

Khusnullin added that divers would start work on Sunday to check all the supports of the bridge. Once all results are received, a decision will be made to open traffic on the bridge for buses and heavy vehicles.

Thirty-five of the 40 people hospitalized after a deadly rocket attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia Saturday night are in a stable condition, according to a local official.

Two children are among those hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries while a further 12 are receiving outpatient treatment according to Anatoly Kurtev, acting mayor of the city. 

In a Telegram post Sunday morning Kurtev warned people in Zaporizhzhia to go to air raid shelters immediately.

Scores killed: At least 17 people were killed and 40 others wounded after rockets struck Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, according to the city's Acting Mayor Anatoly Kurtev.

The attack, which began around 7 p.m. local time, destroyed five houses and damaged apartment buildings and streets, Kurtev said Saturday on his official Telegram channel.

Some context: Zaporizhzhia is a major city in southern Ukraine, not far from the front line, and the site of a nuclear power plant that the international community is watching warily.

Part of the wider region is occupied by Russian forces. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed measures this week to annex four Ukrainian regions, including Zaporizhzhia, in violation of international law.

Vadim says he plunged into depression last month after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military draft to send hundreds of thousands of conscripts to fight in Ukraine.

“I was silent,” the 28-year-old engineer says, explaining that he simply stopped talking while at work. “I was angry and afraid.”

When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February, Vadim says he took to the streets of Moscow to protest — but Putin’s September 21 order to draft at least 300,000 men to fight felt like a point of no return.

He decided he had only one option left. Several days after Putin’s draft order, he bid his grandmother a tearful farewell and left his home in Moscow — potentially forever.

Vadim and his friend Alexei traveled as fast as they could to Russia’s border with the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, where they waited in line for three days to cross.

“We ran away from Russia because we want to live,” Alexei says. “We are afraid that we can be sent to Ukraine.”

Both men asked not to be identified, to protect loved ones left behind in Russia.

Last week, in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital Almaty, they stood in line with more than 150 other recently-arrived Russians outside a government registration center — part of an exodus of draft dodgers.

Voting with their feet: More than 200,000 Russians have streamed into Kazakhstan following Putin’s conscription announcement, according to the Kazakh government.

And it isn’t hard to spot the new Russian arrivals at the main railway station in Almaty. Every hour, it seems, young Slavic men emerge from the train wearing backpacks, looking slightly dazed while consulting their phones for directions.

They arrive from cities across Russia: Yaroslavl, Togliati, St. Petersburg, Kazan. When asked why they have left they all say the same thing: mobilization.

“It’s not something I want to participate in,” says a 30-year old computer programmer named Sergei. He sat on a bench outside the train station with his wife, Irina. The couple, clutching backpacks and rolled up sleeping pads, said they hoped to travel on to Turkey and hopefully apply for Schengen visas to Europe.

Read the full story:

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At least 17 people were killed and 40 others wounded after rockets struck the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, according to the city's Acting Mayor Anatoly Kurtev.

The attack, which began around 7 p.m. local time, destroyed five houses and damaged apartment buildings and streets, Kurtev said Saturday on his official Telegram channel.

Some context: Zaporizhzhia is a major city in southern Ukraine, not far from the front line, and the site of a nuclear power plant that the international community is watching warily.

Part of the wider region is occupied by Russian forces. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed measures this week to annex four Ukrainian regions, including Zaporizhzhia, in violation of international law.

Fierce battles are taking place around the strategic city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday.

“Today, I would like to once again mention our soldiers from the Kholodny Yar 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade for their courage and sustained power in this direction.” 

Zelensky also said one of the highest priorities for Ukraine right now is “to speed up the decision of our partners to provide Ukraine with modern and effective anti-aircraft systems in sufficient quantity.” 

On Saturday, Germany announced more weapon deliveries for Ukraine, including the IRIS-T air defense system, and a total of 100 tanks from Greece and Slovakia.

Maxar satellite images captured the damage to the Kerch Strait bridge Saturday, shortly after an explosion rocked the only direct road and rail connection between annexed Crimea and mainland Russia.

The blast caused parts of the bridge to collapse, though Russian transportation officials restarted rail service and allowed vehicles to use some undamaged portions of the roadway by Saturday evening.

The UN's nuclear watchdog condemned new shelling near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which just disconnected the plant from Ukraine's power grid, according to its operator.

The resumed shelling is "tremendously irresponsible," International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said Saturday in a press release.

The last power line connecting the plant to Ukraine’s power grid was damaged and disconnected Saturday due to attacks by Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom. The plant is now relying on diesel generators.

“The resumption of shelling, hitting the plant’s sole source of external power, is tremendously irresponsible. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant must be protected,” Grossi said on Saturday. 

"Although the six reactors are in cold shutdown, they still require electricity for vital nuclear safety and security functions. The plant’s diesel generators each have sufficient fuel for at least ten days. ZNPP engineers have begun work to repair the damaged 750 kV power line," according to the release.

Grossi stressed that the plant "must be protected” and added that he will "soon travel to the Russian Federation, and then return to Ukraine, to agree on a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant. This is an absolute and urgent imperative.”

What Russian officials say: The plant can be put back into operation, said Vladimir Rogov, who is a senior pro-Russian official in the regional Zaporizhzhia government. 

"Now the nuclear power plant has been switched back to the emergency mode of operation. The last power line that connected it with the right bank, with the territories controlled by [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky's regime, has been cut. For now, the nuclear power plant can only be powered by diesel generators, and this is an unusual means," Rogov said while speaking to the pro-Kremlin "Soloviev Live" show on Saturday.

"We have every possibility to restore the nuclear power plant and put it into operation," he added.

The Crimean bridge explosion accelerates the strategic choices Russian President Vladimir Putin must make about Russia’s occupation of southern Ukraine.

This entire presence was already poorly supplied, managed and in retreat. Rickety ferry crossings in bad weather or highly dangerous air cargo flights may now be needed to bolster military shipments into Crimea and toward the frontlines.

Ukraine has been targeting Russia' aging transport dependencies — particularly its reliance on rail — with slow, patient accuracy. First Izium, which led to the collapse around Kharkiv. Then Lyman, which is leading to the erosion of Russia’s control of Donetsk and Luhansk. And now the Kerch Strait bridge, which had become so vital to everything that Russia is trying to hold on to in the south.

To the west of the Dnieper river, his army in Kherson is besieged by fast-moving Ukrainian forces. Putin's troops are already in retreat, partially owing to the same poor resupply that will be accentuated by the Kerch blast.

They are again cut off from this faltering supply line by another series of damaged or targeted bridges across the Dnieper. Over the past week, they have already fallen back over 500 square kilometers (about 193 square miles).

Can Moscow sustain this force over two damaged supply routes? A precarious presence has perhaps overnight become near-impossible.

The second point of decision relates to Crimea. Putin now faces the difficult choice of fortifying it further with depleted forces who face resupply issues, or partially withdrawing his military to ensure their significant resources on the peninsula do not get cut off.

Putin must choose between feeding his larger ambitions with a dwindling chance of success or consolidating forces around an objective he has a greater chance of achieving.

One carries the risk of catastrophic collapse, for his entire brutal adventure into Ukraine — and quite possibly, his rule. The second leaves him with an immediate loss of face, but a stronger chance of sustaining the occupation of smaller parts of Ukraine.

Read Nick Paton Walsh's complete analysis here.