October 9, 2022 Russia-Ukraine News

The Kremlin is intent on showing the attack on the Crimea bridge wasn't that serious and that the crucial lifeline from the Russian mainland to the illegally-annexed Crimean Peninsula will be back to normal soon.

The physical damage can be restored — Russia immediately dispatched a large emergency team to the site — but the damage to Russia's prestige and, more importantly, to the image of Vladimir Putin, won't be that easy to repair. 

Putin's February 21st address to the Russian people, delivered just before he ordered the invasion of Ukraine, laid bare his warped view of history. Ukraine, he insists, is not really an independent country: "Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us," he claimed. "It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space." 

That speech, one of the most revealing of his presidency, makes clear that this fratricidal war against Ukraine is very personal to him. For many years he has been fixated on Peter the Great, the Russian czar who founded St. Petersburg, the city in which Putin was born and raised. I once visited the city administration office in which Putin worked in the early 1990s after he returned from his job as a KGB operative in East Germany. On the wall above his desk was a portrait of Peter the Great.

In June of this year, as the grinding war in Ukraine entered its fourth month, Putin again compared himself to Peter the Great, insisting that Peter, who conquered land from Sweden, was "returning" to Russia what actually belonged to it.

Already, a day after the attack, Russian forces are bombing civilian apartment buildings in Ukraine. Hardline supporters of Putin are urging more strikes on Ukraine's infrastructure. Western leaders warn that an increasingly frustrated Putin might resort to using tactical nuclear weapons. Military experts say he could retaliate asymmetrically, striking unexpected targets.

For years, Putin has had another obsession: punishing traitors. One month after his forces attacked Ukraine, he threatened to retaliate against any Russians who opposed the war, calling them "fifth column ... national traitors" in thrall to the West.

This Sunday, the day after the bridge bombing, he called it a "terrorist attack" whose "authors, executors and masterminds" are the secret services of Ukraine...and "citizens of Russia from foreign countries."

One thing is clear: as the fighting moves closer to Russia, Vladimir Putin sees his "historic mission" in jeopardy. And that means emotions could outweigh reason. For Ukraine, for Russians who oppose the war, and for the world, this is a dangerous moment.

There has been no electricity or running water for three days in a row in Enerhodar, the city adjacent to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that is currently under Russian control, the city's mayor said on Sunday.

According to Ukrainian-elected mayor Dmytro Orlov, constant shelling “prevents quick emergency and restoration work.”

Orlov said “the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly tried to deliver humanitarian supplies with food, hygiene products and so on to the city,” adding that Ukraine is “ready to organize prompt delivery and distribution of drinking water in Enerhodar” but that Russian forces have not let humanitarian aid through.

“For a long time now, the occupiers have not let humanitarian goods from the territories controlled by Ukraine into the city,” Orlov said.

Russian and Ukrainian officials blame each other for the recent shelling in Enerhodar.

Vladimir Rogov, a senior pro-Russian official in the regional Zaporizhzhia government, said Friday that the situation in Enerhodar and its suburbs was due to shelling from Ukrainian side.

Car traffic on the Crimean bridge has resumed in two lanes, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Marat Khusnullin said in a Telegram post Sunday.

“Traffic has already been launched along two lanes on the Crimean bridge," Khusnullin wrote, adding that earlier, one lane was being used for cars traveling in both directions, slowing down traffic since the explosion. 

The deputy prime minister also posted a video showing the cars moving in two lanes across the Kerch bridge.

Train traffic has also resumed on the bridge, but larger vehicles like heavy trucks, vans and buses continue to use ferry boats.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushed into a corner by setbacks in his war effort, but there are no imminent signs he would resort to using nuclear weapons, US Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview Sunday morning.

Putin's war effort is faltering, Murphy, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

"Vladimir Putin is increasingly getting pushed into a corner. This war is going incredibly badly for him, the mobilization that he has undertaken has backfired," Murphy said. "This morning, you see scenes of hundreds of Russian troops essentially refusing to go into training."

Tapper asked Murphy about US President Joe Biden's recent warnings on the danger of nuclear escalation with Putin, in which he invoked "Armageddon."

Murphy said Biden's assessment was realistic, "for the fact that you were dealing with an incredibly dangerous human being in Russia. The war is going badly, and you just can't predict what he's going to do next."

More than 200 rescuers are on scene at the site where a round of missile strikes killed at least 12 people and injured scores in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, authorities said Sunday.

“As of 15:00 [3:00 p.m. local time], emergency rescue operations at the sites of missile strikes in Zaporizhzhia continue. In total 215 people and 58 vehicles are involved (including 85 people and 20 vehicles from the State Emergency Service), as well as 8 teams (8 search dogs) of the dog unit 'Antares' from Pavlohrad town,” Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said in a tweet.

Yesterday evening: The southern city was hit by six Russian cruise missiles and 16 S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, according to Ukraine’s air force. The cruise missiles were fired from Russian Tu-22M3 and Su-35 fighter jets inside Russian-held areas of the Zaporizhzhia region.

CCTV video appears to show the moment a large explosion heavily damaged the Kerch bridge that links Russia's mainland with annexed Crimea, in a devastating blow to Vladimir Putin's war effort in Ukraine.

"A truck is seen driving in the lane towards Crimea when all of a sudden there's a massive explosion, though it's not clear whether it is the truck that actually blew up," CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.

Russian leaders said the blast, which killed three people, was caused by a truck exploding on the road bridge. Ukrainian officials have publicly celebrated the explosion, without directly claiming responsibility.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said Saturday's explosion on Kerch Bridge is a "win" for Ukraine "whatever the reason behind the blast," a foreign ministry press officer told CNN Sunday. 

The blast left the road and rail bridge linking annexed Crimea to mainland Russia severely damaged, which Ukraine has celebrated but not claimed responsibility for.

"Whatever the reason behind the blast, it’s a win for the Ukrainian Armed Forces nonetheless."

Another train has passed over the Kerch Bridge, traveling from Sevastopol to St. Petersburg, following the blast that severely damaged parts of the road and rail bridge between annexed Crimea and the Russian mainland, Russian state media TASS reported on Sunday.

The first passenger services resumed travel across the bridge on Saturday, traveling from the Crimean peninsula to Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

Some road traffic has also resumed, according to the Russian-appointed deputy leader of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, who said on Sunday that "there is no threat of interruptions in food supplies to the Kherson region due to the rapid resumption of traffic on the Crimean bridge."

However, heavy trucks, vans and buses are traveling on ferry boats.

About 100 vans and trucks and about 650 passengers have been ferried across the Kerch Strait since the blast, TASS reported on Sunday, citing Crimean authorities. Ferries for both light vehicles and heavy trucks have already made several journeys overnight and on Sunday.

TASS also reported that a line of about 200 cars has formed in Krasnodar, Russia, from where the ferry to Crimea departs. Passenger buses are also departing via ferry and are able to bypass the lines.

Repair works: On Saturday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said repair works on the bridge would be carried out around the clock. He added that a damage survey will be completed within a day and Russian divers will check all the supports of the bridge on Sunday morning.

At least 87 civilians, including 10 children, were injured by a round of missile strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, Oleksandr Starukh, head of Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said Sunday.

Officials had earlier said that 49 people were injured in the strikes.

The southern city was hit by six Russian cruise missiles and 16 S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, according to Ukraine’s air force. The cruise missiles were fired from Russian Tu-22M3 and Su-35 fighter jets inside Russian-held areas of the Zaporizhzhia region.