Summary
That’s it for the Ukraine blog.
Here is a summary of what has happened today:
Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain export deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey a year ago to alleviate a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blocked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict to be exported safely. It had been extended several times, but was due to expire today.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain initiative was “unconscionable” and called for the year-old pact to be restored as quickly as possible, Reuters reported.
Russia said its decision not to extend the Black Sea grain deal was final with no more talks planned, state news agency Tass reported.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, demanded concrete proposals on ensuring the security of the bridge linking southern Russia to Crimea after what he called a “terrorist act” in the early hours of the morning that caused serious damage.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the attack was carried out by Kyiv. She did not provide any evidence and Ukraine did not confirm or deny her account. She said: “Today’s attack on the Crimean bridge was carried out by the Kyiv regime. This regime is terrorist and has all the hallmarks of an international organised crime group.”
Thank you for reading. Join us tomorrow for further developments in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Updated
The US will continue to work with other countries to move grain out of Ukraine after Russia discontinued its participation in the Black Sea grain deal, Reuters reports.
On Monday, Russia said it had quit the year-old pact and could not guarantee the safety of ships moving grain.
The UN said Monday’s announcement would “strike a blow to people in need everywhere”.
Updated
Here is a video of remarks by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Russia withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal, from Reuters.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres signaled that Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal means a related pact between the UN and Moscow to help facilitate Russia's grain and fertilizer exports was also terminated https://t.co/3y6QvouoBp pic.twitter.com/oPIlq7dYVc
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 17, 2023
Updated
Blinken condemns Russia's decision to pull out of grain deal as 'unconscionable'
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has said that Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain initiative is “unconscionable” and called for the year-old pact to be restored as quickly as possible, Reuters reports.
Blinken shared his thoughts with reporters in Washington DC and said the US was monitoring the situation after an overnight attack destroyed a bridge linking Crimea to Russia.
Updated
Summary
Here is a summary of the day so far.
Two people, a mother and father, have been killed and their daughter injured in an “emergency” on the Kursk Bridge linking the peninsula with the Russian region of Krasnodar, Russian authorities say. Russia blame apparent attack on Ukraine.
Russia pulled out of Black Sea grain export deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey last July, aimed to alleviate a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blocked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict to be exported safely. It had been extended several times, but was due to expire today.
Russia said their decision not to extend the Black Sea grain deal is final and no more talks are planned, state news agency Tass quoted a senior Russian official at the UN as saying on Monday, according to Reuters.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Monday demanded concrete proposals on ensuring the security of the bridge linking southern Russia to Crimea after an attack in the early hours of the morning that he called a “terrorist act” that had caused serious damage.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said attack was carried out by Kyiv. She did not provide any evidence and Ukraine have not cnfirmed or denied her account. She said: “Today’s attack on the Crimean Bridge was carried out by the Kyiv regime. This regime is terrorist and has all the hallmarks of an international organised crime group.”
Kyiv’s navy and Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) carried out a “special operation” using seaborne drones, an SBU source has told AFP. Waterborne drones struck the sole bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimea peninsula on Monday, a major conduit for Russia’s troops in Ukraine, in a deadly attack which is said to have killed a civilian couple and injured their daughter.
The British government said on Monday it had introduced further Russian sanctions, including against the Russian education minister, Sergey Kravtsov, related to what it describes as Moscow’s forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
On the frontlines, Ukraine is pushing ahead with its counteroffensive and says it has retaken more than 200sq km since the beginning of the push. Ukrainian forces have taken back nearly 18 sq km of territory in the east and the south in the past week in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, a senior defence official said.
The mayor of Kharkiv has dismissed Russia’s claim that today’s attack on the Kerch Bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to Russia was an act of Ukrainian “terrorism” and said the Kremlin had brought death and destruction to his city on an epic scale. He said: “How can they speak about terrorism after unleashing war on Ukraine? They are shooting and killing our people. They have destroyed thousands of buildings in Kharkiv, leaving 150,000 homeless.”
In a statement, the UN secretary general, António Guterres expressed his “deeply regret” at the Russian Federation’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal, saying hundreds of millions of people facing a global cost-of-living crisis “will pay the price”.
A Russian Su-25 fighter-bomber crashed into the Sea of Azov near the town of Yeysk on Monday but the pilot ejected successfully, local officials said in a statement on social media.
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, signaled on Monday that Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal means a related pact between the UN and Moscow to help facilitate Russia’s grain and fertiliser exports was also terminated, Reuters reports.
Russian officials on Monday encouraged holidaymakers stranded in Crimea to drive home through occupied Ukraine after explosions damaged the Kerch Bridge, connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia, halting traffic.
The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, condemned Russia’s “cynical move” to terminate the Black Sea grain initiative in a tweet.
The Russian foreign ministry on Monday condemned what it called a Ukrainian terrorist attack on the bridge between Russia and Crimea and said the west may be complicit in it, Reuters reported.
Italian cardinal Matteo Zuppi, tasked by Pope Francis to help bring peace to Ukraine, met US officials in Washington as a follow-up to his talks in Kyiv and Moscow, the Vatican has said.
US aid chief, Samantha Power, on Monday announced more than $500m (£380m) in humanitarian assistance during a visit to Ukraine, expressing “grave dismay” with Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in a pact that has allowed the Black Sea grain deal.
French dairy group Danone is reviewing its legal options after the Russian state took control of its subsidiary in the country, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Monday.
Belarus said it downed a Ukrainian drone on the border between the two countries, days after Minsk confirmed the arrival of Russian Wagner fighters on its territory.
The EU hosts Latin American and Caribbean leaders today hoping to soothe ties strained by deep divisions over trade and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sweden’s government on Monday announced it was pledging 6bn kron (£450m) in aid to rebuild Ukraine and facilitate reforms to pave the way for EU membership.
Germany appealed to Russia to make an extension of the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine possible, a government spokesperson in Berlin said on Monday.
Updated
David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and a former British foreign secretary, condemned Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative, saying the "expiration of the deal risks “holding global food security at ransom”.
In a statement, he said:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is deeply alarmed at Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, putting the future of the grain exports from the region at risk – a decision which will be most painfully felt by the 349 million people around the world facing food insecurity today.
People are facing the “ripple effects” on food and energy prices since the start of the war, he said, as “the expiration of the deal risks holding global food security at ransom”.
Approximately 80% of east Africa’s grain is imported from Russia and Ukraine. With over 50 million people across east Africa facing hunger at crisis levels (IPC 3+) and food prices up by nearly 40% this year. Any disruption to the global food supplies at a time of heightened need could have devastating consequences.
The world’s most vulnerable will face the harshest consequences of today’s withdrawal. Without the grain deal in place, it is all the more urgent that the United Nations humanitarian response plans for countries at risk of famine are fully funded and that global efforts to prevent famine from taking hold are coordinated through a re-energised UN’s high-level taskforce on preventing famine.
Putin says Russia preparing response to Crimea bridge attack
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Monday his defence ministry was preparing proposals for a response to the overnight attack that damaged the road bridge linking Crimea to southern Russia, for which he blamed Ukraine.
At the end of a televised meeting with national and regional officials to assess the consequences of the attack, Putin called it a cruel and senseless act, as he said the bridge had not been used for months to supply Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Ukraine did not officially claim responsibility, but local media said its security services had deployed maritime drones.
Updated
During her visit to Kyiv, the US aid chief Samantha Power also met Patron, the bomb-sniffing Jack russell terrier who has become a Ukrainian hero. Patron has helped to detect mines and now serves with his owner, Mykhailo Illov, in the state emergency service unit, according to the Ukraine.ua website.
Here are some photos of Power and Patron from the wires.
Updated
The Russian deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, said on Monday that the road bridge linking southern Russia to Crimea would be completely repaired by 1 November after an overnight attack that caused severe damage.
Speaking in a televised meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Khusnullin said there was no damage to pylons, but that one section of road had been completely destroyed and would have to be rebuilt, Reuters reports.
He said road traffic would resume in one direction by 15 September, and in both by 1 November. The parallel railway bridge was not damaged in the attack.
Updated
Vladimir Putin says Kerch Bridge seriously damaged by 'terrorist act'
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Monday demanded concrete proposals on ensuring the security of the bridge linking southern Russia to Crimea after an attack in the early hours of the morning that he called a “terrorist act” that had caused serious damage.
Putin was speaking in a televised meeting with officials to assess the consequences of the attack, Reuters reported.
Updated
US aid chief, Samantha Power, on Monday announced more than $500m (£380m) in humanitarian assistance during a visit to Ukraine, expressing “grave dismay” with Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in a pact that has allowed the Black Sea grain deal.
She made the aid announcement, first reported by Reuters, at the state emergency services headquarters in the capital, Kyiv, to respond to the needs of Ukrainians affected by the war. (See 14:34)
The aid, which will be provided through the UN and other non-governmental organisation partners, will increase support for those who have been displaced or otherwise affected by the war with emergency food assistance, health care and safe drinking water, among other assistance, according to a statement from the US agency for international development (USAID).
Power said she handed over on Monday an additional $2.3m worth of equipment to help the agency repair the damage inflicted by Russia’s forces on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.
Power said:
We see what is happening in Ukraine. Russia continues to burn and Ukraine continues to build. It is our privilege … to support our Ukrainian partners as they do that building.
This is a reckless decision that will have profound human consequences, and it’s just another example of Russian callousness and disregard for human lives and livelihoods, not only here in Ukraine but all around the world.
Power also expressed “grave dismay” with Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in a pact that has allowed the Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine for the past year in a deal that aimed to alleviate a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blocked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict to be exported safely.
Updated
Belarus said it downed a Ukrainian drone on the border between the two countries, days after Minsk confirmed the arrival of Russian Wagner fighters on its territory.
The Moscow-allied country said it would house Wagner troops, who spearheaded Russia’s advance in some key battles in Ukraine, after their failed rebellion in Russia last month, AFP reports.
The Belarusian border committee said:
A border security unit on duty on the Dnipro River discovered a drone that had violated the state border from Ukrainian territory.
The drone was used for the reconnaissance of the border area of the Republic of Belarus.
It said the drone was intercepted in the Braginsky area in the south-eastern corner of Belarus, where the Dnipro River flows near the border between the two neighbours.
Border guards had downed the drone into the water using electronic air defence systems, the committee said.
Russian shelling killed two people and wounded 10 in the city of Bilopillia in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region near the border with Russia on Monday, Reuters reports.
On Telegram, Ukraine’s national police said four artillery strikes had been recorded, three of which hit the centre of the town in the Sumy region.
The post said:
A 76-year-old woman and a 74-year-old woman who were on the street at the time died as a result of their injuries.
One of the wounded was in a serious condition, according to the statement.
These claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Hundreds of millions 'will pay the price' of Russia's withdrawal from Black Sea grain deal, UN says
In a statement, the UN secretary general, António Guterres expressed his “deeply regret” at the Russian Federation’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal, saying hundreds of millions of people facing a global cost-of-living crisis “will pay the price”.
In a statement, Guterres said:
I deeply regret the decision by the Russian Federation to terminate the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative – including the withdrawal of Russian security guarantees for navigation in the north-western part of the Black Sea.
This Initiative has ensured the safe passage of over 32m metric tons of food commodities from Ukrainian ports.
The statement added that the Black Sea Initiative, together with the Memorandum of Understanding on facilitating exports of Russian food products and fertilisers, have been essential for global food security.
At a time when the production and availability of food is being disrupted by conflict, climate change, energy prices and more, these agreements have helped to reduce food prices by over 23% since March last year.
Hundreds of millions of people face hunger and consumers are confronting a global cost-of-living crisis. They will pay the price.
Guterres said he sent a letter to Putin with a new proposal to keep the Black Sea Initiative “alive”.
In that letter, he underlined the action the UN has taken to ensure trade has continued during the conflict, including securing the US General Licence 6B and 6C, which he said are especially important in light of the extraterritorial nature of US sanctions and working closely with the key Russian fertiliser groups to unblock assets.
Today’s decision by the Russian Federation will strike a blow to people in need everywhere. Looking ahead, our goal must continue to be advancing global food security and global food price stability.
This will remain the focus of my efforts, taking into account the rise in human suffering that will inevitably result from today’s decision. We will stay fixed on finding pathways for solutions. There is simply too much at stake in a hungry and hurting world.
Updated
French dairy group Danone is reviewing its legal options after the Russian state took control of its subsidiary in the country, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Monday.
The source said the company would write to the Kremlin and was in contact with French authorities, including the office of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
The source, who preferred not want to be named, said:
Danone is going to write a letter to the Kremlin and is studying the legal remedies, but in this kind of country, it is not easy to exercise your rights.
According to a decree signed by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Sunday, foreign-owned stakes in Danone Russia, along with beer company Carlsberg’s stake in a local brewer were put under the “temporary management” of government property agency Rosimushchestvo.
The source close to the matter said Danone had been near to an agreement to sell its Russian subsidiary, when news of the decree broke.
Danone learned the news at the same time as everyone else, when the press release from the Russian presidency came out.
The company is very surprised because they had initiated a very organised process to leave the country, involving the local authorities at every key moment.
They were about to close a deal, at least to propose a buyer to the commission in charge. We are talking about a few weeks.
The source did not name the potential buyer.
The source said Danone was reassured that the state takeover was supposed to be temporary, but he added: “The notion of time there is not the same as ours.”
Updated
Anton Gerashchenko, Ukraine’s internal affairs ministerial adviser, has tweeted a screenshot from Google Maps that shows the traffic jam for people trying to leave Crimea has reached 10km (6 miles).
According to Google Maps, the traffic jam of those trying to leave crimea has reached 10 kilometers.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 17, 2023
Russian Hospitality Union reports that at least 50,000 tourists are currently in Crimea and most of them arrived on their personal vehicles. pic.twitter.com/MrIFlDrhbc
Updated
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, signaled on Monday that Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal means a related pact between the UN and Moscow to help facilitate Russia’s grain and fertiliser exports was also terminated, Reuters reports.
Guterres told reporters:
Today’s decision by the Russian Federation will strike a blow to people in need everywhere.
Russia ending a deal that allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain is an “act of cruelty,” US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Monday, Reuters reports.
She told reporters:
Russia has dealt another blow to the world’s most vulnerable, this time by suspending its participation in the Black Sea grain initiative. This is really another act of cruelty.
China’s UN ambassador, Zhang Jun, expressed hope that all parties involved could find a way forward, specifically mentioning that Russia had concerns.
Zhang said:
We still hope that, you know, by accommodating the concerns of all parties … then we can find a package solution.
Russia’s withdrawal from a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain means “the guarantees for the safety of navigation issued by the Russian side will be revoked,” Russia told the UN shipping agency the International Maritime Organization, according to an excerpt from the letter seen by Reuters.
It added:
Proactive necessary actions and response measures to neutralise threats posed by the Kyiv regime in the area will be taken, considering the continued armed provocations thereby and attempts to attack Russian military and civilian objects.
Updated
Russia’s decision not to extend the Black Sea grain deal is final and no more talks are planned, state news agency Tass quoted a senior Russian official at the UN as saying on Monday, according to Reuters.
Russia must renew the Black Sea grain initiative and commit to its full implementation, a spokesperson for Britain’s foreign ministry has said.
“By unilaterally forcing the collapse of the [Black Sea grain initiative (BSGI)], Russia has used food as a weapon and is preventing grain reaching those who need it most,” the spokesperson said. “The UK condemns Russia*s blatant attempt to harm the most vulnerable as part of its illegal war. Russia must renew the BSGI and commit to its full implementation.”
The White House has also said that Russia’s suspension of the pact that has allowed the Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine “will worsen food security and harm millions.” White House national security council spokesperson Adam Hodge said:
“We urge the government of Russia to immediately reverse its decision.”
However, the Financial Times reports on apparent Russian frustrations that not enough was done to provide market access to its exports under the terms of the deal.
“Absolutely nothing has been done – I want to stress that. It’s one-way traffic. Not a single point linked to the fact Russia has its own interests has been fulfilled,” Putin said last week. He claimed barriers to Russia’s agricultural exports meant that supplies had not reached the countries that needed them.
David Harland, director of the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, told the FT: “Russia just felt that it wasn’t getting much in return, and might as well continue to squeeze Ukraine. Turkey could still persuade Russia to resurrect it, as it has a lot of leverage over Moscow. But it would have to lean hard.”
Updated
The EU hosts Latin American and Caribbean leaders today hoping to soothe ties strained by deep divisions over trade and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But despite Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy having addressed summits including the Arab League, the African Union and the G7 by video link, he has been barred from EU-Celac.
The 33 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean have no agreed position on the Ukraine war, and some want to protect ties with Russia or seek a compromise peace deal.
Brazil under Lula has proclaimed itself “neutral” in Russia’s war against Ukraine. He has argued that Kyiv and Moscow share responsibility for the conflict. “The war in the heart of Europe has launched, over the world, uncertainties. And it channels for war purposes resources that were essential for the economy and for social programs,” he said today. “The arms race makes it even more difficult to confront the climate change issue.”
“We have to find a language of consensus,” said Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which holds the Celac presidency, speaking generally. EU officials equally highlighted the struggle to find even the blandest wording that could unite the 60 nations in one statement.
Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reported that Celac did not want any direct reference to the Ukrainian conflict to appear in the joint declaration produced by the summit of nations.
Despite pressure from Spain, Ukraine was not even mentioned in the final declaration, which simply called for a ‘complete, just and lasting peace throughout the world based on the charter of the United Nations, including the principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity of the states’.
Updated
Italian cardinal Matteo Zuppi, tasked by Pope Francis to help bring peace to Ukraine, will meet US officials later today in Washington as a follow-up to his talks in Kyiv and Moscow, the Vatican has said.
The visit is aimed at promoting peace in Ukraine and supporting “humanitarian initiatives to alleviate the suffering of people who have been hit the hardest and the most fragile, in particular children,” the statement said.
Last month, Zuppi visited Moscow, where he met with the head of Russia’s influential Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, and with Russia’s children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. Earlier in June, he visited Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Kyiv estimates nearly 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea since February 2022, in what it condemns as illegal deportations.
Zuppi said earlier this month that he was working on a “mechanism” that could ensure the return of the children.
Updated
US aid chief Samantha Power is set to announce more than $500m in humanitarian assistance for Ukraine today during a visit to the war-torn country, according to an announcement shared in advance with Reuters.
The US will continue to stand with the people affected by Russia’s devastating full-scale war and remains committed to providing life-saving assistance to those who need it most.
The mayor of Kharkiv has dismissed Russia’s claim that today’s attack on the Kerch Bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to Russia was an act of Ukrainian “terrorism” and said the Kremlin had brought death and destruction to his city on an epic scale.
In an interview with the Guardian, Ihor Terekhov said Moscow had been bombarding Kharkiv’s civilian population since last year’s full-scale invasion. Yesterday, one person was killed and seven injured in three separate attacks, with S-300 missiles fired from across the Russian border.
How can they speak about terrorism after unleashing war on Ukraine? They are shooting and killing our people. They have destroyed thousands of buildings in Kharkiv, leaving 150,000 homeless.
Half of our schools and kindergartens have been wrecked, not to mention our cultural heritage. Our children can’t go to school. This weekend, the Russians attacked us again. They strike our parks and gardens. How dare they speak of terrorism?
They are trying to break us, to break Ukraine’s spirit. They will not succeed.
Updated
These grainy images taken from an official video on the Kerch Bridge show Russian committee investigators working assessing the heavy damage on a segment of the structure linking Crimea to Russia following the attack in the early hours this morning.
A Russian Su-25 fighter-bomber crashed into the Sea of Azov near the town of Yeysk on Monday but the pilot ejected successfully, local officials said in a statement on social media.
Unverified videos shared on social media appeared to show a parachute descending over the sea near a beach, and a large splash in the water. Yeysk lies across the Sea of Azov from the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
The officials from Russia’s Krasnodar region said the pilot had been rescued from the water.
Russian officials on Monday encouraged holidaymakers stranded in Crimea to drive home through occupied Ukraine after explosions damaged the Kerch Bridge, connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia, halting traffic.
The attack killed two people and left their daughter injured, with President Vladimir Putin ordering authorities to repair the road and help tourists stranded in Crimea.
Commercial flights to Moscow-annexed Crimea have been suspended after the start of the offensive in Ukraine, and most Russian tourists drive to Crimea using the bridge.
With traffic jams building up, officials proposed that tourists drive 400km (250 miles) through territories held by the Russian army, some seriously affected by fighting, AFP reports.
The Moscow-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said:
I ask residents and guests of the peninsula to refrain from travel on the Crimea Bridge and with the aim of safety choose an alternative overland route through the new regions.
Russian state television aired a map of the route, which goes through occupied Melitopol to the port of Mariupol and ends in the southern Russian city of Rostov.
“Safety is ensured by the Russian army, it will be strengthened,” said Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed head of part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region controlled by Moscow.
He said he had “minimised” the curfew to “let the transit transport through”.
Saldo warned that there would be checkpoints that are in place to avoid “sabotage” but that formalities would be “reduced”.
Updated
Teledyne FLIR Defense will supply an additional 1,000 Black Hornet micro drones to Ukraine as part of an order from Norway’s ministry of defence, the company said on Monday.
The pocket-sized drones are suitable for operations in global positioning system-denied environments and are useful in transmitting live visible and thermal videos, Reuters reports.
The company had last year struck a four-year deal with Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency to deliver these nano unmanned aerial vehicles for around $48m (£37m).
Norway had donated nearly 300 Black Hornet systems to Ukraine forces in 2022 through the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine, the company said.
The company was formed in 2021 when industrial conglomerate Teledyne Technologies acquired thermal imaging camera supplier FLIR Systems in an $8bn (£6.1bn)deal.
Updated
UK introduces further Russian sanctions to combat attempts to destroy Ukrainian national identity
The British government said on Monday it had introduced further Russian sanctions, including against the Russian education minister, Sergey Kravtsov, related to what it describes as Moscow’s forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
Britain imposed 14 sanctions designations in response to “Russia’s attempts to destroy Ukrainian national identity”, 11 of which it said were linked to the forcible relocation of children. They will be subject to asset freezes and travel bans, Reuters reports.
James Cleverly, the British foreign secretary, said in a statement:
In his chilling programme of forced child deportation, and the hate-filled propaganda spewed by his lackeys, we see [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s true intention – to wipe Ukraine from the map.
Today’s sanctions hold those who prop up Putin’s regime to account, including those who would see Ukraine destroyed, its national identity dissolved, and its future erased.
An EU sanctions package last month included those the bloc said were responsible for “the forced transfers and deportation of Ukrainian children and persons responsible for the looting of Ukraine’s cultural heritage”.
In June 2022, Britain also sanctioned Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children.
Britain says many of the children have been sent to re-education camps, where they are “exposed to Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic, and military education.”
The Russian culture minister, Olga Lyubimova, was also targeted with sanctions on Monday “for using her position to support the Russian state’s damaging anti-Ukrainian policies”, the British government said, and former Russia Today presenter Anton Krasovsky, for spreading “propaganda designed to incite violence and hatred towards Ukraine”.
Cleverly will chair a session on Ukraine at the UN security council in New York later on Monday, where he will highlight the deportation of Ukrainian children, his office said.
Updated
Russia said on Monday that it would be ready to consider rejoining the Black Sea grain export deal if it had “concrete results”, but that so far its demands had not been met.
Its foreign ministry said in a statement that, despite UN efforts to prolong the deal, obstacles to Russian food and fertiliser exports remained, Reuters reports.
It said:
Only upon receipt of concrete results, and not promises and assurances, will Russia be ready to consider restoring the deal.
Updated
The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, condemned Russia’s “cynical move” to terminate the Black Sea grain initiative in a tweet.
I strongly condemn Russia’s cynical move to terminate the Black Sea Grain Initiative, despite UN & Türkiye’s efforts.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 17, 2023
EU is working to ensure food security for the world’s vulnerable. #EUSolidarityLanes will continue bringing agrifood products out of Ukraine & to global…
Updated
This map, created by the graphics team, shows where the Kerch Bridge is situated. The 12-mile crossing is the only direct land link between Russia and Crimea.
The Russian foreign ministry on Monday condemned what it called a Ukrainian terrorist attack on the bridge between Russia and Crimea and said the west may be complicit in it, Reuters reports.
The Russian foreign ministry said:
If a western origin of the surface drones that attacked the bridge, as well as a role of western countries in planning, sponsoring and carrying out this operation, is revealed, this will confirm their complicity in the terrorist activities of the Kyiv regime.
Updated
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, paid tribute to the lives lost in the MH17 incident, where Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was brought down over eastern Ukraine. The flight was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on 17 July 2014.
Zelenskiy tweeted:
Our thoughts and hearts are with the families and loved ones of each and every one of the 298 victims. This tragedy caused by the aggressor will never be forgotten.
A Dutch-led joint investigation team (JIT) concluded in May 2018 that the missile system belonged to a Russian brigade, and Australia and the Netherlands announced they are holding Russia responsible for downing the aircraft.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. Russia has denied any involvement.
Today, 🇺🇦 honors the memory of the victims of #MH17. Our thoughts and hearts are with the families and loved ones of each and every one of the 298 victims. This tragedy caused by the aggressor will never be forgotten. The invading state, the terrorist state will be held fully…
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 17, 2023
Updated
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Monday that he believes Russian president Vladimir Putin wants the continuation of a deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, after Moscow said it will suspend its participation.
Speaking to reporters, Erdoğan said he would discuss the deal, including the export of Russian fertiliser, with Putin when they meet in person during an expected meeting in August, Reuters reports.
Erdoğan said:
I hope that with this discussion, we can make some progress and continue on our way without a pause.
Updated
Russian grain exporting union Rusgrain said on Monday that its members planned to continue supplying customers with Russian grain at competitive prices, despite Moscow pulling out of the Black Sea grain export deal, Reuters reports.
It said:
Russia is the largest supplier of wheat to the world market … All contractual obligations of Russian grain exporters will be fulfilled.
Updated
Sweden pledges over £450m to rebuild Ukraine
Sweden’s government on Monday announced it was pledging 6bn krona (£450m) in aid to rebuild Ukraine and facilitate reforms to pave the way for EU membership.
The international development cooperation minister, Johan Forssell, said the funds, which would be distributed between 2023 and 2027, were part of a newly developed aid strategy specifically developed for Ukraine, AFP reports.
He stressed that the funds made up a “base plate” for Swedish aid to Ukraine.
Forssell told a press conference:
This is the largest and most ambitious bilateral strategy that Sweden has developed, ever. Additional specifically directed investments will come on top of this.
In the long term we want to see not just one, but two blue and yellow flags in Kyiv. The Ukrainian and the European.
Funds would be targeted to help build up Ukrainian infrastructure and institutions such as healthcare; increasing Ukraine’s access to fossil-free energy and transition to greener technologies; and towards strengthening security and human rights protections.
Updated
Here is a video our multimedia team has put together, showing some of the damage caused by the explosion on the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Crimean peninsula to Russia.
Sanctions hold Russia to account for child deportation programme, British foreign minister says
James Cleverly, the UK foreign minister, said sanctions announced by Britain on Monday held those individuals to account who had propped up Vladimir Putin’s regime, including with a programme of forced child deportation in Ukraine.
More information to come …
Updated
Germany continues to appeal to Russia to make an extension of the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine possible, a government spokesperson in Berlin said on Monday.
Asked at a regular news conference about blasts on the Kerch Bridge, the spokesperson said Berlin did not comment on individual developments in the war.
Earlier on Monday, Russia said it had halted participation in the UN-brokered grain deal but that this had nothing to do with the blasts, which Moscow called a Ukrainian terrorist attack.
Updated
This is from the BBC’s Ukraine live blog.
Many Ukrainians greeted the news of the incident on the Kerch Bridge with glee.
Writing on social media, they are hopeful that Russian logistics will be interrupted as a result – the bridge has been a major supply route for Russian armour and supplies.
The spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern group of forces, Serhiy Cherevaty, said soldiers on the frontlines “reacted well” to the events on the bridge with “a healthy dose of schadenfreude”, or joy over Russia’s misfortune.
“They have faith in their commanders and they want to strike the enemy wherever possible – to exact retribution for our people who have been killed, for our destroyed cities,” he told the BBC.
Updated
A Ukrainian filmmaker who joined fighting against Russian forces, said on Monday that he has been treated for shrapnel wounds after coming under artillery fire on the southern front.
Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian film-maker vocally opposed to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, was convicted on terrorism charges in 2015 and sentenced to two decades in prison. The 47-year-old film served several years before he was freed in a prisoner swap and joined Ukrainian special forces when the war broke out.
Sentsov, a junior lieutenant, was injured shortly after receiving France’s Légion d’Honneur from the French ambassador to Ukraine on Friday.
“On the first combat mission after our return, during the landing, we came under artillery fire. Bradley saved our lives again. Three wounded, mostly shrapnel,” Sentsov wrote on Facebook today, referring to a US Bradley infantry fighting vehicle.
He posted a picture of himself sitting in an ambulance in his military uniform with blood on his face. “They have already removed the shrapnel from my face, the small pieces in my arm and leg will stay with me for ever. The other guys are also doing well – – Zaporizhzhia doctors know their job, thank you!” Sentsov wrote.
In 2018, he was awarded the European parliament’s prestigious Sakharov prize.
Updated
Russia has officially notified Turkey, Ukraine and the UN that it is opposed to extending the Black Sea grain export deal, the state-owned RIA news agency reported.
Over the last year, the Black Sea grain initiative enabled the export of more than 32m tonnes of Ukrainian grain. But that traffic has come to a halt because of Russia’s refusal to renew the deal.
The last cargo ship cleared by the signatories to the deal was headed across the Black Sea from the Ukrainian port of Odesa towards Istanbul, the Marine Traffic website showed late last night. According to data from the Joint Coordination Centre that oversees the agreement, China and Turkey are the main beneficiaries of the grain shipments, as well as developed economies.
UN secretary general, António Guterres, has been working hard to get the deal renewed. He supports removing hurdles to Russia exporting its fertilisers and sent Putin a letter last week.
Updated
Russia pulls out of Black Sea grain export deal, announces Kremlin
Russia has effectively suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain export deal, the Kremlin has said.
The deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey last July, aimed to alleviate a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blocked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict to be exported safely. It had been extended several times, but was due to expire today. Russia had been saying for months that conditions for its extension had not been fulfilled.
“In fact, the Black Sea agreements ceased to be valid today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Unfortunately, the part of these Black Sea agreements concerning Russia has not been implemented so far, so its effect is terminated.”
Moscow has long complained that obstacles remained to its exports of grain and fertiliser. “As soon as the Russian part of the agreements is fulfilled, the Russian side will return to the implementation of this deal, immediately,” Peskov said.
He said the decision not to renew the deal was unrelated to the overnight attack on the bridge between Russia and Crimea, which he called a “terrorist act” and blamed on Ukraine. “These are absolutely unrelated events. Even before the terrorist attack, the position was declared by president Putin,” Peskov said.
Updated
The Russian couple killed in what Moscow said was a Ukrainian attack as they drove across the Kerch Bridge at night for what they hoped would be a family holiday on Crimea’s Black Sea coast have been named, along with their 14-year-old daughter who was wounded.
Video posted on social media showed the family’s car smashed, with bloodied bodies contorted and silent. The girl was named as Angelina. Her parents were Alexei and Nataliya.
Angelina sustained injuries to her head and chest but was conscious and breathing independently and her life was not in danger, according to the local emergency response headquarters, which said psychologists were on hand.
An unidentified relative told Russian media RBK that the family had been travelling with the girl’s aunt, in two cars, and decided to drive at night to avoid traffic jams.
“At about 3 o’clock in the morning, the family heard the first bang, after which the lights went out on the bridge,” the relative said. “After the second bang, there was no more contact.”
Updated
On the frontlines, Ukraine is pushing ahead with its counteroffensive and says it has retaken more than 200 sq km since the beginning of the push.
Ukrainian forces have taken back nearly 18 sq km of territory in the east and the south in the past week in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, a senior defence official said.
That includes several square kilometres of territory around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces seized in May. In the Kupyansk area of Kharkiv region Russian forces had been “actively advancing since the end of last week,” deputy defence minister Ganna Malyar said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield developments. Russia has not confirmed the Ukrainian reports of territorial gains.
Updated
Ukraine and its supporters have taken to social media to celebrate the apparent attack this morning on the Kerch bridge.
Former Estonian president Toomas Ilves shared a meme showing joyful singing going on in a bar, with the chorus line: “Kerch Bridge on fire! Your defence is terrified! Na-na-na-na!” The video was credited to NAFO, the North Atlantic Fella Organisation, a popular internet movement that counters Russian propaganda and features a dog.
Sound on! https://t.co/CTtrAWOlQu
— toomas ilves, ex-verif (@IlvesToomas) July 17, 2023
Anton Gerashchenko, a popular blogger and adviser to Ukraine’s defence ministry, posted a photo of a shark with some explosives bursting through the bridge. The shark appears to be a reference to a Russian tourist who was killed by a shark last month, while swimming in Egypt.
Meanwhile, Czech journalist Tomasz Dawid Jędruchów shared a photo showing Vladimir Putin sitting at one end of his infamous long Kremlin table and meeting his defence minister Sergei Shoigu and commander in chief Valery Gerasimov. The middle of the table is broken, and resembles the Kerch Bridge after today’s explosion.
— Tomasz Dawid Jędruchów (@tdjedruchow) July 17, 2023
Updated
The Ukrainian security service source told AFP:
Today’s attack on the Crimean bridge is a special operation of the SBU and the navy … It was difficult to reach the bridge, but in the end it was possible to do it.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter in an apparent allusion to the bridge attack:
Any illegal structures used to deliver Russian instruments of mass murder are necessarily short-lived... regardless of the reasons for the destruction.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) July 17, 2023
In written comments to AFP, SBU spokesman Artem Dekhtiarenko said: “We are watching with interest as one of the symbols of Putin’s regime once again failed to withstand the military load.”
Ukraine's security services claim Kerch Bridge attack - AFP
Kyiv’s navy and Ukraine’s security service (SBU) carried out a “special operation” using seaborne drones, an SBU source has told AFP.
Waterborne drones struck the sole bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimea peninsula on Monday, a major conduit for Russia’s troops in Ukraine, in a deadly attack which is said to have killed a civilian couple and injured their daughter.
The explosion hit the Kerch Bridge just hours before a crucial deal to export Ukrainian grain was to expire. There has not yet been word from talks in Istanbul, where Turkish and UN officials were trying to persuade Russia to agree another extension of the deal that was first signed there in July 2022.
Updated
Ukrainian officials have continued to hint at Kyiv’s involvement in the Kerch Bridge attack.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence department, Andriy Yusov, has said: “The peninsula is used by the Russians as a large logistical hub for moving forces and assets deep into the territory of Ukraine. Of course, any logistical problems are additional complications for the occupiers.”
AP reports that the security service of Ukraine has posted a redacted version of a popular lullaby, tweaked to say that the bridge “went to sleep again.”.
It also released a statement saying “all details regarding the explosion will be announced after the victory”, the BBC reports.
Updated
A Crimean Tatar-led underground movement is already active behind Russian lines and hundreds of young Tatar men are ready to take up arms to liberate the occupied peninsula, a veteran community leader has said.
The Guardian’s world affairs editor Julian Borger reports.
Moving away from events on the Crimean bridge for now, Russia continued its assault on Kharkiv last night and air raid sirens sounded to warn people to take shelter. Loud explosions were heard in the central district on Sunday evening, just hours after one person was killed and four wounded in an earlier attack.
Updated
Officials from the Kremlin have now spoken. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the following, without providing evidence to corroborate the claims:
Today’s attack on the Crimean bridge was carried out by the Kyiv regime. This regime is terrorist and has all the hallmarks of an international organized crime group.
Decisions are made by Ukrainian officials and the military with the direct participation of American and British intelligence agencies and politicians. The US and Britain are in charge of a terrorist state structure.
A senior Russian politician has said that Russia should not renew the Black Sea grain deal in light of the attack on the bridge.
Sergei Mironov, leader of the A Just Russia party in Russia’s parliament, also said that Moscow should respond by destroying Ukrainian infrastructure, according to Reuters.
“That is what we need to do, and not discuss a grain deal that helps Kyiv’s rulers and their western masters line their pockets. There can be no grain deal after another terrorist attack,” he said on Telegram.
Russia agreed a year ago to sign the Black Sea grain deal which allowed Ukraine to resume shipping food from its southern ports despite the war. But it has repeatedly cast doubt on whether it will agreed to extend the arrangement, which – incidentally – expires today.
The Kremlin has yet to comment on the Crimean bridge incident or its possible implications for the grain deal. But state media is now reporting that Russia’s anti-terrorist committee has said Ukrainian “special forces” attacked the Crimean bridge overnight using unmanned drones on the water surface.
Updated
At least two other Ukrainian media outlets have cited unnamed sources which have said Ukraine’s domestic security agency and navy were behind the incident.
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne and media outlet Ukrainska Pravda gave few details of an operation they said had involved the security service of Ukraine and the navy, but Suspilne cited its sources as saying the bridge was attacked with underwater drones, according to Reuters.
Suspilne quoted a navy spokesperson as saying he had no such information and urging the broadcaster to wait for official announcements.
Updated
The Russian-installed head of Crimea’s parliament has claimed that Ukraine was behind the incident on the Crimea bridge which killed two people earlier, the state RIA news agency reported.
Vladimir Konstantinov was quoted as saying that the bridge had been attacked by what he called Ukraine’s “terrorist regime” and that the railway part of the bridge was not damaged. In comments published by Russian media, he alleged Ukraine had committed a “new crime” by targeting a “civilian” facility.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that a Ukraine security service source has told the broadcaster that the attack was “a special operation of the naval forces of the armed forces of Ukraine and the security service of Ukraine”.
“The bridge was attacked with surface drones. It was difficult to reach the bridge, but in the end it was possible,” the source says.
The Ukrainian site censor.net is also reporting that Ukraine’s domestic security agency was behind the attack, citing security service sources. It also states that the organisation head, Vasyl Malyuk, previously said the bridge was a legitimate target.
Updated
The Russian independent online newspaper The Insider has published a video showing the damage done to the bridge earlier today.
One section of the carriage way has buckled. There is no vehicle traffic in either direction. The footage was taken from the neighbouring railway bridge which is undamaged, and broadcast by the pro-Kremlin Crimea 24 channel.
На телеканале «Крым 24» показали поврежденную часть Крымского моста. Видео снято из вагона поезда. pic.twitter.com/91eMrwnzRG
— The Insider (@the_ins_ru) July 17, 2023
Updated
We may not know exactly what happened to the bridge for some time. Reuters reports that Russia blamed Ukraine for an attack on the bridge last October, but the country admitted only indirectly to it months later.
Today, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Odesa military administration, has posted a photo on his Telegram account of what seemed to show part of the bridge broken. But it was not immediately clear whether that was related to any attack.
Russia’s transport ministry said there was damage to the road on the bridge closer to the Crimean Peninsula, but there was no damage to the pillars. It did not say what caused the damage.
In recent weeks, traffic jams to the entrance of the bridge have stretched for kilometres on a daily basis as Russian people went on holiday.
This morning the traffic jam ran for kilometres before police directed vehicles away from the bridge. Social media accounts showed cars lined up on the bridge and its entrance.
Updated
Here’s the full story following the reported explosions on Crimea’s Kerch Bridge, from the Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison.
The Kerch Bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia has been closed by an “emergency” that killed two people and injured a child, after local residents reported hearing explosions in the early hours of Monday morning.
The heavily guarded road and rail link is among the Kremlin’s most important and high-prestige infrastructure projects, and the only overland link that goes directly from Russia to occupied Crimea.
Cars heading for the bridge were stopped early on Monday morning after the head of the Russian-controlled administration in Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said there was “an emergency situation” on the 145th pillar of the bridge.
Mattha Busby here taking over the blog from my colleague Helen Livingston. I’m on Twitter here or email mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk
Updated
Russia is suffering from a shortage of “counter-battery radars”, which are key to allowing commanders to “rapidly locate enemy gun lines,” the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update on the conflict.
“Russian ground forces survivability relies on effectively detecting Ukrainian artillery and striking against it,” the MoD added.
“After being sacked by as commander of Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army (58 CAA) in Ukraine, General-Major Ivan Popov claimed that one of his key complaints had been about the lack of counter battery provision,” the ministry wrote.
(2/4). Russian ground forces survivability relies on effectively detecting Ukrainian artillery and striking against it, often with its force’s own artillery. A key component of this approach is counter-battery radars, which allow commanders to rapidly locate enemy gun lines.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 17, 2023
Ukrainian forces have recaptured a total of seven square kilometres in the past week around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian forces in May, the deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, has said.
“On the southern flank around Bakhmut we have been advancing every day during the past week,” she wrote on Telegram.
In total Ukrainian forces have liberated 31 square kilometres in the Bakhmut area during the counteroffensive, she said.
Pictures are circulating on social media which show the damage done to the bridge in more detail:
Morning in Ukraine. Something happened to the Crimean bridge. pic.twitter.com/EbTo8JNS4H
— Ostap Yarysh (@OstapYarysh) July 17, 2023
What we know so far about the Crimea bridge 'emergency'
If you’re just joining us, here’s a quick summary of what we know so far about the incident in Crimea:
Two people, a mother and father, have been killed and their daughter injured in an “emergency” on the Crimean bridge linking the peninsula with the Russian region of Krasnodar, Russian authorities say
The road has been damaged near the Crimean end of the bridge, Russia’s Ministry of Transport has said, but it did not confirm reports that the pillars supporting the bridge had been damaged
Russia’s Grey Zone channel, a heavily followed Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner mercenary group, reported that there had been two strikes on the bridge at 03:04 a.m. (0004 GMT) and 03:20 a.m, according to Reuters. Reuters and the Guardian are not able to verify this report
The incident could be an act of provocation by Moscow, Natalia Humeniuk, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, has said, claiming that such events are a “typical way of solving problems by authorities of Crimea and the aggressor country”
Train services across the bridge will resume by 9am local time (0600 GMT), the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, has said, while further updates will be given on ferry services to Kuban, in Krasnodar
Aksyonov also said law enforcement agencies would be giving more information about the causes of the “incident” by 9am
The 19-km (12-mile) bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014
It consists of a separate roadway and railway, both supported by concrete stilts, which give way to a wider span held by steel arches at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and the smaller Azov Sea
The bridge is crucial for the supply of fuel, food and other products to Crimea, where the port of Sevastopol is the historic home base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It also became a major supply route for Russian forces after Moscow invaded Ukraine last year
The incident on the Crimea Bridge could be an act of provocation by Moscow, Natalia Humeniuk, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, has said according to Reuters.
“The creation of such provocations, which the occupying authorities of Crimea report immediately very loudly, is a typical way of solving problems by authorities of Crimea and the aggressor country,” Humeniuk told the national broadcaster Rada.
The wires have also meanwhile sent a series of pictures by photographer Oleg Petrasyuk from the frontline Donetsk town of Vuhledar. More than 14,000 people lived there before the war – now they number fewer than 100.
The town has been completely shattered; there is no water or electricity and no buildings that have not been damaged or completely destroyed by the fighting.
If you’re keen to read more on Vuhledar, the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh and Ed Ram sent this report from the area back in February:
Reuters has sent some images of the Crimean bridge from this morning, which show there is no traffic currently on it. It’s difficult to make out any more detail:
Updated
While we try to find out more about what’s happening in Crimea, here’s a bit more from the ISW analysis that I mentioned earlier.
The apparent “chain of command crisis threatens to demoralize the wider Russian war effort in Ukraine” and could affect its ability to conduct offensive operations in southern Ukraine, the institute says.
The continued hollowing out of support for the Russian military leadership among field commanders will produce morale issues throughout the theater.
Further controversies about insubordination and command changes will likely increasingly reach a wider domestic audience as the Russian ultranationalist milblogger community continues to closely follow and amplify these developments.
The Kremlin’s failure to appeal to these commanders and their personnel while also failing to fully back [defence minister Sergei] Shoigu and [chief of the general staff Valery] Gerasimov may increasingly undermine the Kremlin’s desired goal to be viewed as an effective manager of the war in Ukraine.
Two killed in bridge 'emergency', governor of Russia's Belgorod region says
Two people from Russia’s Belgorod region, a mother and father, were killed in the “emergency” on the Crimean bridge and their daughter was injured, the region’s governor has said on Telegram.
“This morning we all started with information about the emergency that happened on the Crimean bridge. We all saw a video on the internet of a damaged car with Belgorod number plates,” Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote.
“The girl was injured, moderately injured … The hardest thing is that her parents died, dad and mom.”
Train services across the Crimea bridge will resume by 9am local time (0600 GMT), the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, has said – that’s in about an hour and a half.
In a post on his Telegram account, Aksyonov said more information on the operation of ferry services would also be given before 9am and that law enforcement agencies would be giving more information about the causes of the “incident”.
Aksyonov had spoken to Russia’s first deputy minister of transport, Andrey Alexandrovich Kostyuk, he added.
Child injured in bridge 'emergency', Russia-backed Crimean authorities say
A child has been injured as a result of the “emergency” on the Crimean bridge, Russia’s Tass news agency is reporting, citing Crimean authorities. It said the child would be transported to Russia’s Krasnodar region by air ambulance.
More from the ISW, which says president Vladimir Putin has consistently undermined the Russian MoD and made it into a “scapegoat” for all Russian military failures, making it hard for defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov to impress their authority on subordinates:
The Kremlin’s chronic disregard for the Russian chain of command is likely hindering Shoigu and Gerasimov in their attempts to suppress insubordination and establish full control over the Russian military in Ukraine.
Putin consistently bypassed or ignored the established chain of command in hopes of securing rapid successes on the battlefield throughout the war, degrading Shoigu’s and Gerasimov’s authority …
Putin also established the Russian MoD as the scapegoat for all Russian military failures, which saddled Shoigu and Gerasimov with a reputation for incompetence and failure that they are unlikely to repair.
In other Russia-Ukraine related news, Moscow’s Ministry of Defence has begun to “remove commanders from some of the Russian military’s most combat effective units” and “appears to be accelerating this effort”, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict.
The arrests and dismissals, including that of Maj Gen Ivan Popov, appear “to be associated with cases of insubordination”, the US-based thinktank says.
Popov flagrantly attempted to bypass Russian Chief of the General Staff and overall theater commander Army General Valery Gerasimov and directly bring his complaints about the frontline in western Zaporizhia to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The ISW also reports that “insubordination among commanders appears to be spreading to some of their soldiers” and that the “intensifying dynamic of insubordination among Russian commanders in Ukraine may prompt other commanders to oppose the Russian military leadership more overtly.”
Updated
Moscow confirms damage to road on Crimean side of bridge
Russia’s Ministry of Transport has confirmed that there is damage to the road on the Crimean side of the bridge, Tass is reporting. It did not confirm reports that the bridge’s supporting pillars have been damaged.
“The ministry stressed that the inspection of the bridge’s condition is ongoing,” Tass wrote on its Telegram channel.
Updated
More updates from Russian news agency Tass, which cites the Grand Service Express as saying that train services to the Crimea may be changed due to the emergency on the Crimean bridge.
It also reported that Crimean authorities are urging tourists to stay in hotels if possible.
Checkpoints in Armyansk, Dzhankoy and Perekop, which connect Crimea with the Russian-occupied Kherson region, are operating as usual, Tass said citing Oleg Kryuchkov, an advisor to Crimea’s governor.
As mentioned in the previous post, Ukraine’s post office actually issued a commemorative stamp last year to celebrate the October attack on the Crimea bridge.
It illustrates how hated the bridge is by Ukrainians as a symbol of Russia’s illegal occupation of the Crimean peninsula.
Designed by the Ukrainian artist Yuriy Shapoval, the stamp shows the bridge behind clouds of dark grey smoke.
In the forefront is the famous scene from the Titanic, where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet stand on the bow of the ship a reference to Russia’s claims that the bridge was unsinkable.
The bridge was hit by a huge explosion back in October, causing a section of the road bridge to collapse into the Kerch strait and leaving a train and the rail link in flames.
Russia said three people were killed in the blast and blamed it on a truck bomb. Kyiv did not claim responsibility for the attack, although it was certainly celebrated by Ukrainians.
The country’s post office revealed – within hours – designs for a commemorative stamp, showing the bridge ablaze and raising questions about whether the explosion had been anticipated.
More on the significance of the Crimea bridge, also known as the Kerch bridge or Kerch Strait bridge, from George Barros, an analyst at the US-based Institute for the Study of War:
The Kerch Strait Bridge is a logistically significant object.
— George Barros (@georgewbarros) July 17, 2023
Russia will only have 1 ground supply line - the costal highway on the Sea of Azov - to sustain (or evacuate) its tens of thousands of troops in occupied Kherson & Crimea if UKR manages to degrade/destroy the bridge. pic.twitter.com/f2Uaj6XE5u
Crimea has stockpiles of fuel, food and industrial goods, the Russian news agency Tass has reported, citing Elena Elekchyan, acting minister of industrial policy in Crimea.
A ferry service linking Crimea with Kuban, in the Russian region of Krasnodar, has also been halted, Tass reported.
While we try to find out more about the latest “emergency” on the Crimean bridge here is background on why it’s so important, courtesy of Reuters:
The 19-km (12-mile) Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The bridge was a flagship project for [Russian president Vladimir] Putin, who opened it himself for road traffic with great fanfare by driving a truck across in 2018.
It consists of a separate roadway and railway, both supported by concrete stilts, which give way to a wider span held by steel arches at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and the smaller Azov Sea.
The structure was built, at a reported cost of $3.6 billion, by a firm belonging to Arkady Rotenberg, a close ally and former judo partner of Putin.
The bridge is crucial for the supply of fuel, food and other products to Crimea, where the port of Sevastopol is the historic home base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
It also became a major supply route for Russian forces after Moscow invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, sending forces from Crimea to seize most of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region and some of the adjoining Zaporizhzhia province.
Google maps is showing huge tail backs on the Russian side of the bridge:
Russia’s Grey Zone channel, a heavily followed Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner mercenary group, according to Reuters, reported that there had been two strikes on the bridge at 03:04 a.m. (0004 GMT) and 03:20 a.m.
Reuters and the Guardian are not able to verify this report.
Meanwhile, in a further Telegram post, Crimean governor Aksyonov has asked residents to “refrain from travelling through the Crimean bridge” and to choose alternative land routes “for security reasons”.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.
Traffic has been stopped on the Crimean bridge, which links the Crimean peninsula with the Russian region of Krasnodar, due to an “emergency”, the Russia-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov has said.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app in the early hours of Monday, Aksyonov said “measures are being taken to restore the situation” but gave few further details.
The RBC-Ukraine news agency reported that explosions were heard on the bridge, according to Reuters which said it was not able to independently verify the reports.
The bridge, one of president Vladimir Putin’s prestige projects and a vital logistical link for the Russian military, was hit by an explosion in October.
In other developments:
Fighting in eastern Ukraine has “somewhat intensified” as Ukrainian and Russian forces clash in at least three areas, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. Russian forces had been attacking in the direction of Kupiansk in Kharkiv for two successive days, she said: “We are on the defensive,” Maliar wrote. “There are fierce battles.” Maliar also said the two armies were pummelling one another around the ruined city of Bakhmut but that Ukrainian forces were “gradually moving forward” along its southern flank.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said the Ukrainian counteroffensive had been a failure in an interview broadcast on television. “All enemy attempts to break through our defences … they have not succeeded since the offensive began. The enemy is not successful,” Putin said.
The president also said Russia had a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster bombs and that Moscow reserved the right to use them if such munitions were used against Russian forces in Ukraine. He added that Russia had not yet used the weapons although Russia was accused of using cluster munitions in last year’s deadly Kramatorsk railway station attack.
The Russian state has taken control of French yoghurt maker Danone’s Russian subsidiary along with beer company Carlsberg’s stake in a local brewer, according to a decree signed by Putin. Danone said it was investigating the situation while Carlsberg said it had not been officially informed of the move.
The UN-brokered deal under which Moscow allowed Ukraine to ship its grain across the Black Sea is due to expire late Monday. The Kremlin has threatened to pull out of the agreement and said at the weekend it still had concerns that obligations to remove “obstacles to the export of Russian food and fertilisers still remain unfulfilled”.
Two people were killed on Sunday when Russia launched a series of missile and shelling attacks on the city and region of Kharkiv, beginning in the early hours of the morning and continuing into the evening. Kharkiv governor Oleh Synyehubov said a young man was killed in the city’s Osnovianskyi district and another civilian man was killed in a village in the Kupiansk area.
Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian town of Shebekino near the Ukrainian border with Grad missiles on Sunday, killing a woman riding her bike, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the missiles had struck a market area, damaging a building and two cars.
Only a “few hundred” fighters from Russia’s Wagner group have so far relocated to Belarus, a Ukrainian official said, leaving the eventual fate of the fighting force unclear. “There are some groups of mercenaries on the territory of Belarus, but we are not talking about any massive or large-scale deployment … we are talking about a few hundred,” Andrii Demchenko, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s border guards, told Ukrainian television.
A Chinese naval flotilla set off on Sunday to join Russian naval and air forces in the Sea of Japan in an exercise aimed at “safeguarding the security of strategic waterways”, according to China’s defence ministry. Codenamed “Northern/Interaction-2023”, the drill marks enhanced military cooperation between China and Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is taking place as Beijing continues to rebuff US calls to resume military communication.
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair said it would be “completely disastrous” if the US rowed back support for Ukraine in the event of Donald Trump being re-elected as US president. He also told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that said Ukraine had done an “extraordinary” job in defending itself but when asked what the endgame looked like he said the path would be “extremely difficult”.
