We’re closing this liveblog now. You can read all our Ukraine coverage here. Thanks.
Summary
It’s nearly 11pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its eighth month, is being accompanied by the destruction and pillaging of historical sites and treasures on an industrial scale, Ukrainian authorities say. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ukraine’s culture minister alleged that Russian soldiers helped themselves to artifacts in almost 40 Ukrainian museums.
Austria’s ministry of foreign affairs has condemned Russia’s recent attacks in Zaporizhzhia that has killed at least 13 people. The ministry called the attacks “utterly unacceptable and must stop,” adding that “those responsible must be held to account.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US president Joe Biden spoke by phone on Sunday and agreed the Kremlin’s latest nuclear threats were “irresponsible” and its partial mobilization “a serious mistake”, according to a German government statement, Reuters reports. The nearly one-hour telephone call was focused on preparations for the upcoming G7 and G20 meetings that will address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the consequences, the statement said.
Russia’s FSB security service said on Sunday it had seen a “considerable increase” in Ukrainian fire into its territory in recent days, claiming one person had been killed and five wounded over the past week. Since the start of October, the number of attacks from Ukrainian armed formations on Russia’s border territory has considerably increased,” said the FSB, which is responsible for border security.
A Russian drone killed a civilian in Sumy oblast on Sunday, Euromaidan has reported. According to the deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine, the victim was standing next to a store in the Myronivska community.
The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency has announced that a power line that was cut yesterday by shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been restored.
Ukraine’s national police said on Sunday that authorities had exhumed the first 20 bodies from makeshift graves in the recently liberated city of Lyman, in the eastern Donetsk region.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its eighth month, is being accompanied by the destruction and pillaging of historical sites and treasures on an industrial scale, Ukrainian authorities say.
Associated Press reports:
In an interview with The Associated Press, Ukraine’s culture minister alleged that Russian soldiers helped themselves to artifacts in almost 40 Ukrainian museums. The looting and destruction of cultural sites has caused losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros (dollars), the minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, added.
“The attitude of Russians toward Ukrainian culture heritage is a war crime,” he said.
For the moment, Ukraine’s government and its Western backers supplying weapons are mostly focused on defeating Russia on the battlefield. But if and when peace returns, the preservation of Ukrainian collections of art, history and culture also will be vital, so survivors of the war can begin the next fight: rebuilding their lives.
“These are museums, historical buildings, churches. Everything that was built and created by generations of Ukrainians,” Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said in September when she visited a Ukrainian museum in New York. “This is a war against our identity.”
Austria’s ministry of foreign affairs has condemned Russia’s recent attacks in Zaporizhzhia that has killed at least 13 people.
The ministry called the attacks “utterly unacceptable and must stop,” adding that “those responsible must be held to account.”
Russian attacks against civilian infrastructure like in #Zaporizhzhia are utterly unacceptable and must stop. The protection of civilians is not a choice, but a duty under international law. Those responsible must be held to account.
— MFA Austria (@MFA_Austria) October 9, 2022
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the US president, Joe Biden, spoke by phone on Sunday and agreed the Kremlin’s latest nuclear threats were “irresponsible” and its part mobilisation “a serious mistake”, according to a German government statement, Reuters reports.
The nearly one-hour telephone call was focused on preparations for the upcoming G7 and G20 meetings, which will address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the consequences, the statement said.
The two leaders agreed never to accept Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory, calling it a further escalation, the statement said.
They agreed that Russia’s part mobilisation showed the “bitter price” Russians were having to pay for the miscalculations of Vladimir Putin.
“They criticised the latest nuclear threats of Moscow as irresponsible and agreed such a step would have exceptionally serious consequences for Russia,” the statement said.
On the topic of the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, the two leaders agreed the sabotage of critical infrastructure would be dealt with decisively, it said.
A White House statement reaffirmed the talks between Scholz and Biden, saying:
The leaders reiterated their condemnation of Russia’s attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory, as well as their ongoing commitment to hold Russia accountable for its brutal actions and provide security and economic assistance to Ukraine.
Updated
Putin: Crimea bridge attack an 'act of terrorism'
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said the explosion on a key bridge linking Crimea and the Russian mainland was a terrorist act planned by the Ukrainian special services.
In a video address on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel on Sunday, Putin said:
“There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure … This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services.”
Putin was meeting Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s investigative committee, who was presenting findings of an inquiry into Saturday’s explosion and fire on the Kerch bridge.
Updated
Russia’s FSB security service said on Sunday it had seen a “considerable increase” in Ukrainian fire into its territory in recent days, claiming one person had been killed and five wounded over the past week.
Agence France-Presse reports:
Since the start of October, the number of attacks from Ukrainian armed formations on Russia’s border territory has considerably increased,” said the FSB, which is responsible for border security.
The attacks have concentrated on the Russian region of Belgorod, near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, as well as Bryansk and Kursk, the FSB said.
It said that in the past week “more than 100 bombardments were recorded in 32 localities, with the use of multiple rocket launchers, artillery, mortars and drones”.
A child was among those wounded, the FSB said, adding that the attacks also “destroyed two electricity stations, 11 residential buildings and two administrative buildings”.
Updated
A Russian drone killed a civilian in Sumy oblast on Sunday, Euromaidan has reported.
According to the deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine, the victim was standing next to a store in the Myronivska community.
Russian drone killed a civilian in Sumy Oblast on Sunday, 9 October. The person was standing next to the store in Myronivska community, Deputy Head of the Office of the President reported https://t.co/v34joAy1Vl
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) October 9, 2022
Updated
The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency has announced that a power line that was cut yesterday by shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been restored.
Our team at #Zaporizhzhya confirms the offsite power line lost yday was restored & #ZNPP is reconnected to the grid—a temporary relief in a still untenable situation. A protection zone is needed now. I will travel to 🇷🇺 & will see 🇺🇦@ZelenskyyUa thereafter to establish the zone.
— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) October 9, 2022
Updated
Ukraine’s national police said on Sunday that authorities had exhumed the first 20 bodies from makeshift graves in the recently liberated city of Lyman, in the eastern Donetsk region.
The exhumation works continue at two mass burial sites, where there may be about 200 civilian bodies, Ukraine's National Police reported on Oct. 9.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 9, 2022
Updated
Summary
It is coming up to 6.30pm in Kyiv. Here is what you might have missed:
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will hold a meeting of his security council on Monday, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said. It comes after an explosion on Saturday caused the collapse of part of a bridge linking the Crimean peninsula with Russia.
Ukrainian authorities have revised the death toll from the Russian shelling of the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia down from 17 to at least 12. The blasts blew out windows in adjacent buildings and left at least one high-rise apartment building partly collapsed. In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, the city council said 17 were killed but later revised that down to 12. The city council secretary, Anatoliy Kurtev, said rockets struck the city overnight, and that at least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings had been damaged. At least 40 people were admitted to hospital and dozens more were being treated for moderate to light injuries, Kurtev posted on his Telegram channel.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has vowed that those who ordered and carried out the “merciless” strikes on Zaporizhzhia will be held responsible. In a post on his Facebook page, he said the attack was “evil” and that everyone involved in the incident “will be held accountable”.
The blasts that killed at least 12 people in Zaporizhzhia came from six missiles launched in Russian-occupied areas of the wider region, the Ukrainian air force has said. The Zaporizhzhia region is one of four that Russia claimed as its own this month, but the regional capital remains under Ukrainian control.
Reuters reports that the White House said it would continue to arm Ukraine but declined to make a direct comment on an explosion that damaged Russia’s road-and-rail bridge to Crimea. The Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told ABC’s This Week programme: “We don’t really have anything more to add to the reports about the explosion on the bridge. What I can tell you is that Mr Putin started this war, and Mr Putin could end it today, simply by moving his troops out of the country.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is being accompanied by the destruction and pillaging of historical sites and treasures on an industrial scale, Ukrainian authorities have said. In an interview with the Associated Press, Ukraine’s culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, alleged that Russian soldiers helped themselves to artefacts in almost 40 Ukrainian museums. The looting and destruction of cultural sites has caused losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros, the minister added.
Ukraine has recaptured more than 1,170 sq km (450 sq miles) of land in its southern Kherson region since launching the start of its counter-assault against Russia in late August, a military spokesperson said. Ukraine achieved success with its offensive in the north-east, but its drive in the south to wipe out a Russian foothold on the west bank of the vast Dnipro river has taken longer, Reuters reports. Southern military command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk said Ukraine was making progress on the Kherson front, but that a lot needed to be done to secure newly recaptured territories.
The damage from Saturday’s explosion on the Kerch bridge in Crimea could have a “significant” impact on Russia’s “already strained ability to sustain its forces” in southern Ukraine, the latest UK intelligence update said. The Ministry of Defence said the blast “will likely touch President Putin closely” for reasons including that it came hours after his 70th birthday; that he personally sponsored and opened the bridge; and that its construction contractor was a childhood friend. The ministry said the bridge’s rail crossing had played a key role in moving heavy military vehicles to the southern front during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian divers were due on Sunday to examine the extent of damage from the blast on the Kerch bridge linking Crimea to Russia. Russian news agencies quoted the deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, as saying the divers would start work on Sunday at 6am (3am GMT), with a more detailed survey above the waterline expected to be completed by the end of the day.
Updated
At least 12 killed after Russian shelling of Zaporizhzhia
Ukrainian authorities have revised the death toll from the Russian shelling of Zaporizhzhia down from 17 to at least 12.
The blasts blew out windows in adjacent buildings and left at least one high-rise apartment building partly collapsed.
In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, the city council said 17 were killed but later revised that down to 12, reports Associated Press.
The city council secretary, Anatoliy Kurtev, said rockets struck the city overnight, and that at least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings had been damaged.
At least 40 people were admitted to hospital and dozens more were being treated for moderate to light injuries, Kurtev posted on his Telegram channel.
Updated
Putin to hold meeting of security council on Monday
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will hold a meeting of his security council on Monday, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said.
It comes after an explosion on Saturday caused the collapse of part of a bridge linking the Crimean peninsula with Russia.
The Kremlin says Putin will hold a security council session on Monday, in the first instance of him actually planning to do anything since the Crimean bridge was struck.https://t.co/GRyMWKF7r0
— max seddon (@maxseddon) October 9, 2022
Updated
Ukraine has recaptured more than 1,170 sq km (450 sq miles) of land in its southern Kherson region since launching the start of its counter-assault against Russia in late August, a military spokesperson said today.
Ukraine achieved success with its offensive in the north-east, but its drive in the south to wipe out a Russian foothold on the west bank of the vast Dnipro river has taken longer, Reuters reports.
Southern military command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk said that Ukraine was making progress on the Kherson front, but that a lot needed to be done to secure newly recaptured territories.
She said on Ukrainian television:
Work is continuing on consolidation of territory, clearing it and conducting stabilising operations, as the settlements we enter contain many surprises left by the (Russian) occupiers
As of today, from the beginning of the counter-offensive, over 1,170 sq km have been liberated in the Kherson direction.
Ukrainian officials have long talked up the priority of recapturing Kherson, a flat, agricultural region which Moscow captured in its near-entirety in the early days of its invasion.
Updated
US will continue to offer Ukraine 'security assistance'
Reuters reports that the White House said it would continue to arm Ukraine but declined direct comment on an explosion that damaged Russia’s road-and-rail bridge to Crimea.
National security spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s This Week programme:
We don’t really have anything more to add to the reports about the explosion on the bridge.
What I can tell you is that Mr Putin started this war, and Mr Putin could end it today, simply by moving his troops out of the country.
Kirby said both sides needed to find a way to negotiate an end to the war but that Putin had shown no interest in doing so.
He added:
Quite the contrary. By calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists, by politically annexing, or at least trying to annex four areas of Ukraine, he has shown every indication that he is doubling down.
This, said Kirby, “is why, quite frankly, we are in touch almost daily with the Ukrainians and we’re going to continue to provide them security assistance.”
Updated
These are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine.
Updated
Nicole Stybnarova, a lecturer in public international law at the University of Oxford, has written for us to argue that Putin’s war is illegal – and Russians fleeing the draft may have the right to asylum:
Russian software architect “AA” was one of 17,000 people who fled Russia for Finland last weekend. This was before Finland closed its border with Russia, which was the last direct route from Russia to the European Union.
AA told Finnish journalists that Russia was establishing “call-up centres or contact points” on the other side of the border, preventing people from leaving and funnelling them into the armed forces.
Apparently, no authority on either side of the borders between Russia and the EU is now interested in the fate of ordinary Russians who refuse to fight in the criminal invasion of Ukraine.
Read more: Putin’s war is illegal – and Russians fleeing the draft may have the right to asylum
Updated
Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs has provided an update on Russian losses in the war.
According to the government department, 62,500 Russian soldiers have been killed and 5,133 armoured personnel vehicles destroyed or captured.
Vladimir Putin’s forces have also lost 1,477 artillery systems, 266 aircraft, 235 helicopters and 2,486 tanks.
The Guardian has not been able to independently verify these numbers.
2️⃣2️⃣8️⃣ days of full-scale Russia’s war on #Ukraine.
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) October 9, 2022
Information on #Russian invasion.
Losses of #Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine, October 9. pic.twitter.com/5iWiawV1D5
Updated
The blasts that killed at least 17 people in Zaporizhzhia came from six missiles launched in Russian-occupied areas of the wider region, the Ukrainian air force has said. The Zaporizhzhia region is one of four Russia claimed as its own this month, but the regional capital remains under Ukrainian control.
Updated
Emma Graham-Harrison and Charlotte Higgins report for us in Lviv:
In a time of violence, warfare and bloodshed, what is the use of literature? This was a question addressed at the Lviv BookForum, a three-day literary festival in the Ukrainian city, staged despite – and in defiance of – the Russian invasion.
The festival has brought together Ukrainian, British and international authors including human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, whose bestselling book, East West Street, is largely set in 20th-century Lviv.
Ukrainian writer Oleksandr Mykhed told audiences that at the moment of the invasion, he realised: “You could not protect your family from a rifle with your poems. You could not hit someone with a book, you could try but it won’t work with the crazy occupiers from Moscow. I lost belief in the power of culture, lost interest in reading.”
Read more: ‘People need to tell stories’: Lviv holds literary festival in defiance of war
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister for foreign affairs, has urged western countries to provide air and missile defence systems following Russian shelling in the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
Russia continues its missile terror against civilians in Zaporizhzhia. 12 strikes on residential areas overnight, at least 12 killed and many more wounded. We urgently need more modern air and missile defense systems to save innocent lives. I urge partners to speed up deliveries. pic.twitter.com/nnUT4Lu32d
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) October 9, 2022
Updated
Peter Beaumont reports for us from Kyiv:
At least 17 people have been killed by Russian shelling of a residential area in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, a region that the Kremlin illegally claims to have annexed despite not controlling all of it.
The overnight attack happened in the aftermath of a devastating explosion on the key bridge linking Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland, a prestige project of the president, Vladimir Putin. The blast seriously damaged the 12-mile-long (19km) structure, which serves as an important military supply route.
The Zaporizhzhia strike came as Ukrainians – jubilant over the damage to the Kerch bridge, a hated symbol of Putin’s ambitions – were bracing for a major retaliation by Moscow, which had warned Kyiv against targeting the structure.
Read more: Ukraine: at least 17 killed in attack on housing in Zaporizhzhia
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is being accompanied by the destruction and pillaging of historical sites and treasures on an industrial scale, Ukrainian authorities said.
In an interview with the Associated Press (AP), Ukraine’s culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, alleged that Russian soldiers helped themselves to artefacts in almost 40 Ukrainian museums.
The looting and destruction of cultural sites has caused losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros, the minister added.
He said:
The attitude of Russians toward Ukrainian culture heritage is a war crime.
Mariupol’s exiled city council said Russian forces pilfered more than 2,000 items from the city’s museums.
Among the most precious items were ancient religious icons, a unique handwritten Torah scroll, a 200-year-old bible and more than 200 medals, the council said.
Also looted were artworks by painters Arkhip Kuindzhi, who was born in Mariupol, and Crimea-born Ivan Aivazovsky, both famed for their seascapes, the exiled councillors said.
The UN’s cultural agency is keeping a tally of sites being struck by missiles, bombs and shelling.
With the war now in its eighth month, the agency says it has verified damage to 199 sites in 12 regions.
They include 84 churches and other religious sites, 37 buildings of historic importance, 37 buildings for cultural activities, 18 monuments, 13 museums and 10 libraries, Unesco said.
Updated
Summary
The time is just past 1pm in Kyiv. Here is what you might have missed:
Shelling in the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has killed at least 17 people, city official Anatoliy Kurtev has said. Anton Gerashchenko, a senior presidential adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said preliminary figures suggested 17 dead and 40 wounded after an attack on residential housing. “The Russians are not able to respond on the battlefield and therefore hit the cities in the rear,” he said. The city lies 125km (80 miles) from the Russian-held nuclear power plant that is Europe’s largest.
Zelenskiy has vowed that those who ordered and issued the “merciless” strikes in Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia will be held responsible. In a post on his Facebook page, he said the attack was “evil” and that everyone involved in the incident “will be held accountable”.
The damage from Saturday’s explosion on the Kerch bridge in Crimea could have a “significant” impact on Russia’s “already strained ability to sustain its forces” in southern Ukraine, the latest UK intelligence update says. The Ministry of Defence said the blast “will likely touch President Putin closely” for reasons including that it came hours after his 70th birthday, he personally sponsored and opened the bridge, and its construction contractor was a childhood friend. The ministry said the bridge’s rail crossing had played a key role in moving heavy military vehicles to the southern front during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian divers will on Sunday examine the extent of damage from the blast on the Kerch bridge linking Crimea to Russia. Russian news agencies quoted the deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, as saying the divers would start work on Sunday at 6am (0300 GMT), with a more detailed survey above the waterline expected to be complete by the end of the day.
Vladimir Putin signed a decree late on Saturday tightening security for the Kerch bridge and for energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia after the explosion that crippled the heavily guarded bridge. Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, is in charge of the effort. By Saturday evening, Russia said the rail link across the bridge was operational again but road traffic would remain constricted.
An adviser to Zelenskiy said the explosion on the Kerch bridge was just “the beginning”. Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter: “Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything that is stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.” Three people were killed on Saturday after a truck bomb caused a fire and the collapse of a section of the bridge, Russian officials said.
Russian troops fighting in the Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia regions of southern Ukraine could receive all the supplies they needed via existing land and sea corridors, said Russia’s defence ministry after the Kerch bridge explosion. The road-and-rail bridge has been used to take Russian personnel and military supplies through the peninsula into other parts of Ukraine’s south.
The parliamentary leader of Zelenskiy’s party has stopped short of claiming Kyiv was responsible for the Kerch bridge blast but appeared to cast it as a consequence of Moscow’s takeover of Crimea and attempts to integrate the peninsula with the Russian mainland. “Russian illegal construction is starting to fall apart and catch fire,” David Arakhamia wrote on Telegram. “The reason is simple: if you build something explosive, then sooner or later it will explode.”
Russia has named a new senior commander of Russian forces in Ukraine. Sergei Surovikin is a notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s. He led the Russian military expedition in Syria in 2017, where he was accused of using “controversial” tactics including indiscriminate bombing against anti-government fighters.
Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops were involved in “very tough fighting” near Bakhmut, a strategically important eastern town Russia is trying to take. Reuters reported that while Ukrainian troops had recaptured thousands of square kilometres of land in recent offensives in the east and south, officials say progress is likely to slow once Kyiv’s forces meet more determined resistance. Zelenskiy said in his nightly address: “We are holding our positions in the Donbas, in particular in the Bakhmut direction, where it is very, very difficult now – very tough fighting.”
Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom, said the diesel generators at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had only a limited supply of fuel. Overnight shelling cut power to the plant, which needs cooling to avoid a meltdown, forcing it to switch to emergency generators. The United Natoins atomic watchdog has renewed calls for a protection zone at the plant, condemning the shelling as “tremendously irresponsible”.
Ukraine’s GDP has shrunk by 30% in nine months, the ministry of economy said on Saturday. “Among the negative factors that affected the economy, the weather and the actions of the occupiers stand out,” it said.
France’s prestigious Bayeux War Correspondents’ Awards on Saturday largely honoured reporting on the Ukraine conflict, with Associated Press and Burkina Faso newspaper Sidwaya among the recipients. The photo prize went to Ukrainian photographer Evgeniy Maloletka for his work with video journalist Mstyslav Chernov on the fall of Mariupol for AP.
The series of explosions that rocked Kharkiv early on Saturday sparked a fire at one of the city’s medical institutions, the mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city said. Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that the explosions were the result of missile strikes in the city centre, Associated Press reported. They also sparked a fire in a non-residential building.
The German defence minister has told Nato it must do more to bolster security, warning: “We cannot know how far Putin’s delusions of grandeur can go.” Christine Lambrecht said Germany had heard of Russian threats to Lithuania for implementing EU sanctions and that they must be taken seriously and be prepared, Reuters reported.
The UK has rejected Moscow’s call for a secret ballot in the UN general assembly next week on whether to condemn Russia’s move to annex four regions in Ukraine and requested that the 193-member body vote publicly. The general assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution that would condemn Russia’s “illegal so-called referenda” and the “attempted illegal annexation”.
Updated
The latest pictures from the Russian shelling of housing in Zaporizhzhia that has reportedly killed at least 17 people.
Updated
Slovakia’s defence minister, Yaroslav Nad, has tweeted that two Zuzana howitzers have been sent to Ukraine.
He said:
To celebrate his 70th birthday, we gave the aggressor Putin another gift. Two more new Zuzana 2 howitzers are already in Ukraine (and much more to come).
To mark his 70th birthday, we delivered yet another gift to agressor Putin. Another two new #Zuzana2 howitzers are now in @Ukraine 🇺🇦(and much more to come 😉). #WeStandWithUkraine @DefenceU @oleksiireznikov @UKRinSR @Slovakia_NATO pic.twitter.com/myqiYniJxp
— Jaro Nad (@JaroNad) October 9, 2022
Updated
Andrew Roth reports for us from Moscow:
Russia has appointed a notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s as its first overall commander for the war in Ukraine, as the Kremlin struggles to halt a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has left its forces in disarray.
The appointment of Gen Sergei Surovikin came on the same day as Vladimir Putin was dealt a humiliating blow after an explosion on the Kerch bridge sank a section of the motorway into the Kerch Strait and caused a major fire on the railway.
Surovikin is a veteran commander who led the Russian military expedition in Syria in 2017, where he was accused of using “controversial” tactics including indiscriminate bombing against anti-government fighters.
Read more: Russia appoints notorious general to lead Ukraine offensive
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has posted pictures of the missile strike on the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
The tweet adds that if Ukrainian military forces “had modern anti-missile systems, we could have prevented such tragedies”.
Another russian missile strike on the city of Zaporizhzhia. 17 civilians were killed.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) October 9, 2022
If #UAarmy had modern Western anti-missile systems, we could have prevented such tragedies. pic.twitter.com/6mTHlFshF9
Updated
Zelenskiy condemns 'evil' strike on Zaporizhzhia
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has vowed that those who ordered and issued the “merciless” strikes in Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia will be held responsible.
In a post on his Facebook page, he said:
Zaporozhye again. Again merciless strikes on civilians. In residential buildings, just in the middle of the night. There are already 12 dead. 49 injured in hospital, 6 of them children.
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.
Updated
Peter Beaumont in Kyiv and Pjotr Sauer report:
As a chilly autumn dawn broke on Saturday over the Kerch bridge linking Russia-occupied Crimea to the mainland, the road traffic was light.
With the sky turning pink, a few cars and several lorries were making their way across the bridge, which is about 12 miles (19km) long and before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was used by 15,000 cars a day,
A little way distant and above the cars, a long cargo train carrying tankers of fuel among its wagons was also making its way towards the peninsula across the parallel railway bridge.
The blast, when it came at 6.07am (3.07 GMT), was devastating. CCTV footage posted on Russian Telegram channels showed a car and a lorry moving almost together when a vast fireball engulfed them, orange mixed with a storm of white-hot fragments swirling around the span.
Read more: Pressure on Putin grows as his ‘jewel in the crown’ bridge to Crimea is blown up
CCTV footage appears to show the moment the bridge linking Crimea and Russia was hit by a huge explosion early on Saturday morning.
The Kerch bridge, a hated symbol of the Kremlin’s occupation of the southern Ukrainian peninsula, was built in 2018.
Footage shared on Russian Telegram channels and news agencies appeared to show the moment of the explosion with two vehicles, a truck and a car, at the centre of the blast, although it was unclear whether either was responsible or simply caught up in the detonation
At least 12 people were killed and 49 hospitalised, including six children, as a result of the shelling in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the region’s governor says.
A nine-storey building was partially destroyed overnight, five other residential buildings levelled and many more damaged in 12 Russian missile attacks on the city in south-east Ukraine, Reuters quoted Oleksandr Starukh as saying.
The governor said on Telegram:
There may be more people under the rubble. A rescue operation is under way at the scene. Eight people have already been rescued.
City official Anatoliy Kurtev had said earlier that at least 17 people were killed when missiles hit a high-rise apartment complex and buildings.
Updated
Russian divers will on Sunday examine the extent of damage from the blast on the Kerch bridge linking Crimea to Russia.
Russian news agencies quoted the deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, as saying the divers would start work on Sunday at 6am (0300 GMT), with a more detailed survey above the waterline expected to be complete by the end of the day.
The work came as the Kremlin-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said:
Of course, emotions have been triggered and there is a healthy desire to seek revenge.
Peter Beaumont in Kyiv has the full story:
Crimea bridge blast could have 'significant' impact on Russian forces, says MoD
The damage from Saturday’s explosion on the Kerch bridge in Crimea could have a “significant” impact on Russia’s “already strained ability to sustain its forces” in southern Ukraine, the latest UK intelligence update says.
The Ministry of Defence said the blast “will likely touch President Putin closely” for reasons including that it came hours after his 70th birthday, he personally sponsored and opened the bridge, and its construction contractor was a childhood friend.
The ministry said the bridge’s rail crossing had played a key role in moving heavy military vehicles to the southern front during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The extent of damage to the rail crossing was uncertain, it said, but any serious disruption to its capacity would be “highly likely” to significantly affect Russian forces in Ukraine’s south.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 09 October 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 9, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/FEGhiU7s8U
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/IuMKDQ1Xt6
Updated
Some officials in Moscow and in Russian-occupied Ukraine have called for retaliation over the explosion that heavily damaged the Kerch bridge linking Crimea and Russia on Saturday.
“There is an undisguised terrorist war against us,” Russian ruling party deputy Oleg Morozov told the RIA Novosti news agency.
Agence France-Presse quoted a Russian-installed official in the occupied Ukrainian Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, as saying:
Everyone is waiting for a retaliatory strike and it is likely to come.
Military analysts said the blast could have a major impact if Moscow saw the need to shift already hard-pressed troops to the Crimea from other regions or if it prompted a rush by residents to leave.
Mick Ryan, a retired Australian major general now with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that even if Ukrainians were not behind the blast, it constituted “a massive influence operation win for Ukraine”.
He said on Twitter:
It is a demonstration to Russians, and the rest of the world, that Russia’s military cannot protect any of the provinces it recently annexed.
At least 17 die in shelling of housing in Zaporizhzhia
Shelling in the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has killed at least 17 people, city official Anatoliy Kurtev has said.
Anton Gerashchenko, a senior presidential adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said preliminary figures suggested 17 dead and 40 wounded after an attack on residential housing. “The Russians are not able to respond on the battlefield and therefore hit the cities in the rear,” he said.
The city lies 125km (80 miles) from the Russian-held nuclear power plant that is Europe’s largest.
⚡️Удар по Запоріжжю: повідомляють про 17 загиблих і 40 поранених. Цифри попередні. Жертв може бути більше, повідомляє секретар міськради Анатолій Куртєв
— Антон Геращенко (@Gerashchenko7) October 9, 2022
Зруйновані багатоквартирні приватні будинки
росіяни не здатні відповісти на полі бою і тому б'ють по містах в тилу
📷📹ТРУХА pic.twitter.com/vVbRJDMR9C
Updated
Summary
Vladimir Putin signed a decree late on Saturday tightening security for the Kerch bridge and for energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia after the explosion that crippled the heavily guarded bridge. Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, is in charge of the effort. By Saturday evening, Russia said the rail link across the bridge was operational again but road traffic would remain constricted.
An adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the explosion on the Kerch bridge was just “the beginning”. Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter: “Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything that is stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.” Three people were killed on Saturday after a truck bomb caused a fire and the collapse of a section of the bridge, Russian officials said.
Russian troops fighting in the Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia regions of southern Ukraine could receive all the supplies they needed via existing land and sea corridors, said Russia’s defence ministry after the Kerch bridge explosion. The road-and-rail bridge has been used to take Russian personnel and military supplies through the peninsula into other parts of Ukraine’s south.
The parliamentary leader of Zelenskiy’s party has stopped short of claiming Kyiv was responsible for the Kerch bridge blast but appeared to cast it as a consequence of Moscow’s takeover of Crimea and attempts to integrate the peninsula with the Russian mainland. “Russian illegal construction is starting to fall apart and catch fire,” David Arakhamia wrote on Telegram. “The reason is simple: if you build something explosive, then sooner or later it will explode.”
Russia has named a new senior commander of Russian forces in Ukraine. Sergei Surovikin is a notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s. He led the Russian military expedition in Syria in 2017, where he was accused of using “controversial” tactics including indiscriminate bombing against anti-government fighters.
Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops were involved in “very tough fighting” near Bakhmut, a strategically important eastern town Russia is trying to take. Reuters reported that while Ukrainian troops had recaptured thousands of square kilometres of land in recent offensives in the east and south, officials say progress is likely to slow once Kyiv’s forces meet more determined resistance. Zelenskiy said in his nightly address: “We are holding our positions in the Donbas, in particular in the Bakhmut direction, where it is very, very difficult now – very tough fighting.”
Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom, said the diesel generators at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had only a limited supply of fuel. Overnight shelling cut power to the plant, which needs cooling to avoid a meltdown, forcing it to switch to emergency generators. The United Natoins atomic watchdog has renewed calls for a protection zone at the plant, condemning the shelling as “tremendously irresponsible”.
Ukraine’s GDP has shrunk by 30% in nine months, the ministry of economy said on Saturday. “Among the negative factors that affected the economy, the weather and the actions of the occupiers stand out,” it said.
France’s prestigious Bayeux War Correspondents’ Awards on Saturday largely honoured reporting on the Ukraine conflict, with Associated Press and Burkina Faso newspaper Sidwaya among the recipients. The photo prize went to Ukrainian photographer Evgeniy Maloletka for his work with video journalist Mstyslav Chernov on the fall of Mariupol for AP.
The series of explosions that rocked Kharkiv early on Saturday sparked a fire at one of the city’s medical institutions, the mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city said. Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that the explosions were the result of missile strikes in the city centre, Associated Press reported. They also sparked a fire in a non-residential building.
The German defence minister has told Nato it must do more to bolster security, warning: “We cannot know how far Putin’s delusions of grandeur can go.” Christine Lambrecht said Germany had heard of Russian threats to Lithuania for implementing EU sanctions and that they must be taken seriously and be prepared, Reuters reported.
The UK has rejected Moscow’s call for a secret ballot in the UN general assembly next week on whether to condemn Russia’s move to annex four regions in Ukraine and requested that the 193-member body vote publicly. The general assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution that would condemn Russia’s “illegal so-called referenda” and the “attempted illegal annexation”.
