A Ukraine postage stamp commemorating the explosion on the Russian-controlled Kerch Bridge, October 8, 2022


Saturday’s Coverage: Ukrainians Blow Up Kerch Bridge, Russia’s Link With Occupied Crimea


Source: Institute for the Study of War


UPDATE 1714 GMT:

A Russian drone has killed a civilian in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine.

The victim was standing next to a store in Myronivska.


UPDATE 1709 GMT:

The power line to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has been restored, says International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi.

Needed to ensure the cooling of the complex, the power line was lost on Saturday amid shelling. The plant relied on a backup diesel generator.


UPDATE 1620 GMT:

Ukraine has liberated more than 1,170 square km (450 square miles) in the Kherson region since the start of its counter-offensive in southern Ukraine in late August, said Southern Military Command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk.


UPDATE 1613 GMT:

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba responds to the latest deadly Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia city in the south of the country:


UPDATE 0704 GMT:

This morning’s Russian missile strikes on Zaporizhzhia city (see 0618 GMT) killed 17 people, says Acting Mayor Anatoly Kurtev.

Governor Oleksandr Starukh said 12 were slain and 49 people, including six children, are hospitalized.

Kurtev said five houses were destroyed and about 40 were damaged.

Russian strikes have slain 36 people in the city since Thursday.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted on Facebook:

Zaporozhzhia again. Again merciless strikes on civilians. In residential buildings, just in the middle of the night….

The absolute meanness of all. Absolute evil.

Inhumans and terrorists. From the one who gave this order, and to all who followed this order. They will be held accountable. A must. Before the law and before the people.


UPDATE 0701 GMT:

The latest Russian attacks across the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine have killed three people and injured 14.


UPDATE 0626 GMT:

Ukrainian officials are telling local outlets that Ukraine’s State security service SBU is behind the explosion that damaged the Kerch Bridge.

Ukrayinska Pravda initially claimed SBU involvement, citing an unnamed law enforcement official, “Undermining the Crimean bridge is an operation of the Security Service of Ukraine.” UNIAN published similar information from its source in law enforcement.

SBU spokesman Artem Dekhtyarenko responded, “We will comment on the role of the SBU or any state body of Ukraine…after our final victory.”


UPDATE 0618 GMT:

Russia has again fired missiles on Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine, three days after strikes killed 19 people, including a child.

Governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on Telegram, “The enemy continues to terrorize the city of Zaporizhzhia. Almost a dozen new missile strikes. The consequences are being established.”


UPDATE 0609 GMT:

After the damage to the Kerch Bridge, a prominent host on Russian State media admits that Moscow underestimated Ukraine’s resistance and complains, “The enemy turned out to be incredibly cruel.”


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia is assessing the severe damage to the 12-mile Kerch Bridge, running between Russian-occupied Crimea and the Russian Taman Peninsula, after a Saturday explosion collapsed three of its rail and road spans.

Divers are examining the extent of the damage on Sunday. Russian proxy officials said limited, one-way alternating road traffic — of cars and buses but not heavy vehicles — resumed on Saturday evening.

“The situation is manageable – it’s unpleasant, but not fatal,” said the Kremlin-installed governor of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov. “Of course, emotions have been triggered and there is a healthy desire to seek revenge.”

He did not specify what form “revenge” would take.

Aksyonov said Crimea has a month’s reserve of fuel and more than two months of food. Vladimir Putin signed a decree for tighter security for the Kerch Bridge and for infrastructure supplying electricity and natural gas to Crimea.

Russia’s Embattled Position in South

The explosion, said to be from a truck bomb, accompanies the Ukraine advance in the south as well as the east. Last week the Ukrainians broke through the Russian frontline in the Kherson region and liberated about 500 square km (193 square miles).

Russian forces in the occupied south now have only one railway supply line, which is now within range of Ukraine’s attacks. The Defense Ministry maintained that the embattled troops can still be “fully supplied” through existing land and sea routes.

Putin has replaced three commanders in the past week. After the commanders of the Western and Eastern Military Districts were fired, the Kremlin named Sergey Surovikin as overall commander on Saturday.

Surovikin is the former commander of Russia’s operations in Syria, overseeing indiscriminate bombings and sieges which killed thousands of civilians and destroyed most of the infrastructure in opposition areas.

A former head of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Surovikin took over as commander of the Southern Military District this summer from Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, who was also dismissed as the commander of Putin’s invasion.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not directly refer to the explosion in his nightly address to the nation. However, he noted the state of the weather in Crimea:

However cloudy it is, Ukrainians know…our future is sunny. This is a future without occupiers, across our territory, particularly in Crimea.

Zelenskiy’s advisor Mykhailo Podolyak noted the wider significance of the blast, damaging one of Vladimir Putin’s treasured projects after Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014:

Undoubtedly, we are witnessing the beginning of large-scale negative processes in Russia.