Washington

Putin blames Kyiv for attack on strategic Crimea bridge

Published

2 years ago

October 9, 2022

Putin blames Kyiv for attack on strategic Crimea bridge

KYIV, Ukraine — President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Sunday of orchestrating the assault on a key Russian hyperlink with occupied Crimea, injecting new, heightened stakes right into a calamitous episode that Ukrainian leaders touted as proof of their means to prevail within the battle with Russia.

Russian investigators claimed to have swiftly recognized suspects within the predawn fireball Saturday that despatched concrete spans of the Crimean Bridge, a $4 billion mission symbolizing Russia’s ambitions to regulate Ukraine, buckling into the waters of the Kerch Strait. A day after the incident, which Russia’s prime legislation enforcement physique deemed a terrorist assault, Putin introduced that Ukraine’s particular providers had been accountable.

“There is no such thing as a doubt that the assault was aimed toward destroying vital civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation,” Putin stated in a video launched by the Kremlin. The 12-mile lengthy span, whereas utilized by civilians, can also be a vital navy logistics route for Russia’s armed forces, the one direct street and rail route from mainland Russia to Crimea.

The incident despatched shock waves throughout the area, puncturing Kremlin assurances in regards to the bridge’s invincibility and compounding the challenges Russia faces in holding again a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has recovered occupied areas within the nation’s south and east.

Whereas Russian officers stated that restricted street and rail visitors would proceed, substantial harm to the bridge posed a right away logistics problem for Moscow’s navy offensive. Putin personally inaugurated the bridge in 2018, in a step designed to solidify Russia’s grip on the peninsula, which it illegally annexed in 2014.

Whereas the Ukrainian authorities didn’t publicly declare accountability for the incident, officers in Kyiv sought to make use of the blast as proof of its capability to realize a battlefield victory towards Russia’s bigger, better-armed navy, a prospect dismissed by many Western officers only some months in the past.

A Ukrainian official informed The Washington Submit on Saturday that Ukraine’s particular providers had been behind the explosion, which Russian authorities stated occurred when a truck exploded, igniting gasoline tanks on a passing practice.

Putin’s bridge of desires explodes in flames

Talking within the video with Putin, Alexander Bastrykin, the pinnacle of Russia’s Investigative Committee, stated the truck within the incident, which he stated additionally concerned Russian and different nationals, got here from Bulgaria by way of Georgia and into Russia earlier than being pushed towards Crimea.

Ukrainian officers dismissed the Russian statements, as a substitute condemning Russia for in a single day missile strikes that authorities stated killed at the least 14 individuals and injured at the least 70, together with 11 youngsters, within the Ukrainian metropolis of Zaporizhzhia. After the assault, officers posted images of {a partially} destroyed residence constructing, the place the central part had collapsed right into a pile of rubble.

“Putin accuses Ukraine of terrorism? Sounds too cynical even for Russia,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Twitter. “There is just one terrorist state right here and the entire world is aware of who it’s.”

Russia has repeatedly struck civilian targets since its Feb. 24 invasion, together with hospitals, colleges, residence buildings and railway stations.

In Zaporizhzhia, at the least eight individuals had been pulled from the particles after the assault, Oleksandr Starukh, governor of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, stated Sunday. Rescue efforts had been ongoing.

The destruction highlighted the potential for Russian retaliation for the bridge incident, and the continued vulnerability of Ukrainian cities regardless of the large shipments of weapons supplied by america and European nations in latest months.

Ukrainian International Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated the Zaporizhzhia assault supplied additional proof that Ukraine’s backers ought to accelerate that supply. “We urgently want extra trendy air and missile protection techniques to avoid wasting harmless lives,” he stated on Twitter.

Officers in Kyiv hope that the bridge incident, no matter its trigger, will present further gasoline to their marketing campaign to draw expanded assist from the West, together with longer-range missiles and tanks, and in flip persuade Russian troops and the Russian public that the battle is a misplaced trigger.

Simon Schlegel, a Ukraine knowledgeable with the Worldwide Disaster Group, stated freeway routes throughout Russian-controlled territory to the strategic metropolis of Kherson, which Russian is predicted to defend zealously, weren’t a super substitute for the Crimean bridge as a result of they’re nearer to Ukrainian navy positions.

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian protection minister who now serves as an adviser to the Zelensky authorities, stated the psychological influence of the bridge incident could also be better than even the ensuing logistical challenges for Russia.

“It destroys the belief from the Russian navy, the Russian authorities and even usually Russian individuals of their incapability to handle dangers and incapability to guard,” he stated. “And that’s vastly essential.”

Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Group for Safety and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Zaporizhzhia assault “barbaric. … We’ll need to maintain reaching deeper,” he stated on Twitter. “Extra navy help, extra help, extra sanctions.”

Russian authorities sought to telegraph normalcy following the bridge blast, regardless of what seemed to be critical harm to the construction.

In a message on his Telegram channel, Sergei Aksyonov, head of Crimea area, confirmed a photograph of an undisturbed part of the bridge and stated that officers had been working to regularize transport between Crimea and Russia’s Krasnodar area. He stated regular railway providers had resumed however that solely vehicles had been passing on the bridge for now, whereas buses and heavy automobiles had been touring by ferry.

Russia’s transport ministry reported on Sunday that passenger and freight trains had been operating recurrently throughout the bridge by Sunday morning. It stated commuter rail service would resume that night, in response to Interfax.

It was not clear whether or not truck-borne explosives or one thing else brought on the incident.

Baza, a Russian information outlet that steadily reviews leaked info, acknowledged on its Telegram channel that the driving force of the truck the Russian authorities stated exploded on the bridge had been contracted to ship a cargo cargo to Simferopol, a metropolis in Crimea. The motive force was presupposed to be paid 48,000 rubles, or about $770, Baza reported.

He was contracted on Oct. 6 and loaded the cargo within the Russian metropolis of Armavir on Oct. 7, stopping to sleep simply earlier than the bridge and heading on early the subsequent morning, it stated.

“He informed his household about it, after the decision he turned off his cellphone,” Baza stated. Video posted by a Russian state newspaper confirmed the explosion occurring at 6:03 a.m., when few automobiles had been touring on the bridge.

Officers in St. Petersburg named the 2 different individuals authorities stated had been killed within the explosion as Eduard Chuchakin and Zoya Sofronova, a married couple who labored as historians and documentarians. Authorities stated their automobile was driving close to the truck that exploded.

The assault may intensify inner strain that Putin is going through over battlefield setbacks. The Russian chief is because of maintain a Safety Council assembly on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.

Already, outstanding Russians are urging reprisal, together with lawmakers and media figures reminiscent of Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of state-owned channel RT. After the blast, she asked in a tweet: “And?”

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Safety Council, known as for a forceful response.

“Russia’s response to this crime can solely be the direct destruction of the terrorists. The way in which it’s usually finished on the earth,” he stated in an interview with journalist Nadana Friedrichson, which was printed on her Telegram channel. “That is what the residents of Russia are ready for.”

Isabelle Khurhudyan in Kryvyi Rih, Kostiantyn Khudov in Kyiv and John Hudson in Washington contributed to this report.

Struggle in Ukraine: What it’s essential know

The newest: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees Friday to annex 4 occupied areas of Ukraine, following staged referendums that had been broadly denounced as unlawful. Observe our stay updates right here.

The response: The Biden administration on Friday introduced a brand new spherical of sanctions on Russia, in response to the annexations, focusing on authorities officers and relations, Russian and Belarusian navy officers and protection procurement networks. President Volodymyr Zelensky additionally stated Friday that Ukraine is making use of for “accelerated ascension” into NATO, in an obvious reply to the annexations.

In Russia: Putin declared a navy mobilization on Sept. 21 to name up as many as 300,000 reservists in a dramatic bid to reverse setbacks in his battle on Ukraine. The announcement led to an exodus of greater than 180,000 individuals, largely males who had been topic to service, and renewed protests and different acts of defiance towards the battle.

The struggle: Ukraine mounted a profitable counteroffensive that compelled a serious Russian retreat within the northeastern Kharkiv area in early September, as troops fled cities and villages that they had occupied for the reason that early days of the battle and deserted massive quantities of navy gear.

Photographs: Washington Submit photographers have been on the bottom from the start of the battle — right here’s a few of their strongest work.

How one can assist: Listed here are methods these within the U.S. can assist the Ukrainian individuals in addition to what individuals around the globe have been donating.

Learn our full protection of the Russia-Ukraine battle. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and unique video.

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Washington

BIZ BUZZ: Antonios go to Washington

Published

8 hours ago

January 12, 2025

Press Room

Donald Trump is scheduled to be inaugurated—again—as the president of the United States on Jan. 20 in Washington.

Among those who will witness his return to power as the 47th president of the world’s largest economy are some of his old friends from the Philippines.

We’re talking about Century Properties Group founder and chair Jose EB Antonio and his wife, Hilda.