UkraineKupiansk sty

An informal memorial next to the former 'PMC Wagner Centre's St.Petersburg, St Petersburg, Russian Federation - 24 Aug 2023

HANDOUT on 6/9/2023

How U.S. military aid has grown since the start of the war

The Washington Post

UKRAINE YOUNG SOLDIERS

UKRAINE DRONES PRODUCTION

Wagner fighters deployed in Rostov-on-Don

Russia Ukraine War

The potent U.S. arsenal for Ukraine’s counteroffensive

Ukraine southern front

Promo image for russia-ukraine-frontline-map 

Ruble Sinks as Russia Isolated by Sanctions

Bloomberg

FTWP

HOGP

United States Russia Nuclear Treaty

Ukraine Russia War Crimes Hospitals

For The Washington Post

U.S. Army M1 Abrams tanks from the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 163rd Cavalry Regiment prepare to conduct movement operations during Exercise Eager Lion in Jordan, Sept. 6, 2022

Task Force Spartan

handout

UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-WAR

Contributor

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Tens of thousands in Georgia protest Russian-style ‘foreign agents’ law

Israeli operations in north and south Gaza force displaced to flee again

‘Nothing left’: At least 300 dead as flash floods devastate Afghanistan

An unexpected sight to behold: Ted Cruz working bipartisan deals

Narrative of Trump snoozing in court takes hold — much to his annoyance

Manafort will no longer take on Republican convention role

I used to dismiss my mom’s advice. Then I found a note she wrote before she died.  

Photos of his mom at lunch are a balm people didn’t know they needed

Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her

Carolyn Hax: Keep scrolling seven hours per day, or give therapy a try?

Ask Amy: Mother isn’t accepting of her gay son

Ask Amy: What do I say about my former walking buddy who yelled at me?

Courtroom photo ban adds to hurdles for Trump trial journalists

Israel’s shameful ban on Al Jazeera

Checks, not sex, and other takeaways from Trump’s New York hush money trial

Eighth-inning decision burns the Nats in a 4-2 loss to the Red Sox

Nats win opener at Fenway behind Patrick Corbin and a lockdown bullpen

Commanders rookie DT Johnny Newton needs a second foot surgery

‘Bunker mentality’ at Columbia lit protest spark that spread nationwide

A mystery illness stole their kids’ personalities. These moms fought for answers.

The greatness — yes, greatness — of the Planet of the Apes

The urgent air defense lessons of April 16 

Are smartphones destroying childhood? It’s complicated.

In the campaign against Donald Trump, do the ends justify the means?

Fooled by AI? These firms sell deepfake detection that’s ‘REAL 100%.’ 

Apple apologizes for iPad ad after blowback 

Google’s new ‘Find My’ device network is useful but a stalking risk

Kristi Noem’s dog killing is pure Southern gothic

Claire Messud turns her family’s history into a masterpiece

Joseph Epstein, conservative provocateur, tells his life story in full

5 big travel lessons from an accomplished conservationist

Cruise ship drags dead whale into New York, prompting investigation

The case for eating at Italian gas stations

Bishop vanished. His species can still be saved.

VCU grads walk out during Gov. Youngkin’s speech

Northern lights glow worldwide

Trump trial live updates: Trial resumes with Michael Cohen likely to testify this week

Europe

World

National Security

Military

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukraine-russia/

War in Ukraine

Crimea24tv

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine attacked the Crimean Bridge, a key link from Russia to the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, killing two people and disrupting vehicle traffic early Monday, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. A railroad line over the bridge — which is a vital artery for Russian troops and military supplies — escaped damage and quickly resumed service.

The strike on the bridge occurred hours before the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, announced that Russia would resume its military blockade of Ukrainian grain, canceling a deal that has allowed shipments from ports on the Black Sea despite wartime hostilities. The agreement, brokered by Turkey and backed by the United Nations, enabled crucial food supplies to reach developing countries, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.

The twin developments Monday showed that Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to wreak havoc even as Moscow’s forces have made little progress toward the Kremlin’s stated aim of fully occupying and annexing four regions in southeastern Ukraine in addition to Crimea. A Ukrainian counteroffensive intended to oust the Russian occupiers has also yielded only minimal gains, as Kyiv still lacks serious air power and its ground forces struggle to advance through <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/15/ukraine-war-russia-mines-counteroffensive/" target=_blank>vast minefields</a>.

Russian officials said early-morning explosions on the Crimean Bridge — a pet project of Russian President Vladimir Putin after the invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 — had killed a couple from Russia’s Belgorod region and injured a young girl as their vehicle was crossing the span at about 3:05 a.m.

The biggest obstacle to Ukraine’s counteroffensive? Minefields.

A report by Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the strike, which damaged the roadbed on the bridge, was conducted by two naval drones.

Kyiv’s navy and special forces carried out the nighttime attack, in which drone boats blew up part of the structure, a Ukrainian official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations. Ukrainian officials also reasserted their right to target the crossing because of its use in transporting military supplies.

“It was difficult to reach the bridge, but in the end, it was possible to do it,” the official said. The SBU, Ukraine’s main internal security service, appeared to taunt Russia in a post on its Telegram channel, noting that Monday’s attack was the second strike on the bridge. In October, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/08/crimea-kerch-bridge-attack-explosion-russia-ukraine/" target=_blank>a huge explosion</a> caused damage to the roadway and rail tracks and prompted Russia to retaliate with a barrage of missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Monday’s strike on the Crimean Bridge, also known as the Kerch Bridge, occurred at the height of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/03/crimea-tourism-ukraine-russia/" target=_blank>vacation season</a>, when many Russians travel to Crimea’s beaches on the Black Sea. It also follows reports of attacks by Ukrainian air and sea drones on Sevastopol, the longtime base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry, posting on Telegram, said its forces thwarted attacks by seven air drones and two drone boats. The ministry said that the airborne drones were shot down and that electronic jamming caused the unmanned, semi-submersible vessels to go astray.

Russian officials reacted with fury to Monday’s strike, fixing blame on Ukraine as a “terrorist” regime and suggesting that both British and U.S. intelligence and military officials helped to conduct the attack on the key link to Crimea. Western sanctions levied in response to Russia’s illegal seizure of Crimea remain in effect.

“Today’s attack on the Crimean Bridge was carried out by the Kyiv regime,” said Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. “This regime is terrorist and has all the hallmarks of an organized crime group.” Russia has repeatedly blamed Ukraine and the West for the war, which Putin initiated by ordering an invasion in February 2022.

Russia fires top commander in Ukraine who criticized Defense Ministry

Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the committee on international affairs of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, called the strike a “terrorist attack” and urged Russia’s military to seize control of all of southern Ukraine and to block Kyiv’s access to the Black Sea.

Vacationers and others were also advised to avoid the bridge. Russia’s Ministry of Resorts and Tourism in Crimea urged people traveling there to find alternative routes through Russian-occupied territory, which now forms a land corridor between the peninsula and the mainland. That “land bridge” was a key objective of Putin’s invasion, but driving through that territory would bring holiday travelers into an active war zone.

While Russia has failed so far in its overall annexation objectives, Moscow’s naval superiority has allowed it to disrupt grain shipments from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea. The agreement brokered by Turkey to resume the exports had helped maintain food supplies in developing countries, but the accord has been on the brink of collapse for months, with Russia insisting that terms of the agreement were not being upheld.

“The grain deal agreements have been de facto stopped,” Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said in a call with reporters Monday. “Unfortunately, some of the agreements concerning Russia have not yet been fulfilled, so the deal is being terminated. As soon as the Russian part of the agreements is fulfilled, the Russian side will return to the implementation of this deal immediately.”

Last week, Putin said that none of the conditions of the deal “involving Russian interests” have been met. Putin cited reconnecting the Russian Agricultural Bank to the international SWIFT payment system, after it was cut off by sanctions, as one of the key conditions for renewing the deal.

Putin has also repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that the grain deal was benefiting primarily wealthy European countries rather than poorer, developing nations in Africa and the Middle East as intended. Putin recently brushed off a peace plan that some African leaders had proposed as a way to halt the war in Ukraine.

U.S. officials and European Union leaders denounced Russia’s decision to kill the deal.

“The result of Russia’s action today — weaponizing food, using it as a tool, as a weapon in its war against Ukraine — will be to make food harder to come by in places that desperately need it, and to make prices rise,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington. “The bottom line is, it’s unconscionable.”

“I strongly condemn Russia’s cynical move,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen <a href="https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1680893040330768384" target=_blank>tweeted</a>. European Council President Charles Michel<a href="https://twitter.com/CharlesMichel/status/1680908376421572609?s=20" target=_blank> said</a> millions had benefited from the agreement and that Russia’s decision would “endanger food security” and access to grain and fertilizer supplies “worldwide.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Kyiv was ready to continue shipping its grain through the Black Sea, despite Russia’s implicit threat to blockade Ukrainian ports, though he did not explain how that might be accomplished.

“We are not afraid,” Zelensky said in comments posted on the presidential website. “Even without Russia, it is necessary to do everything to ensure that we can use this corridor.”

Wagner fighters are in Belarus and training Belarusian troops

In an emergency meeting with government officials Monday evening about the bridge attack, Putin ordered his government to tighten protective measures, emphasizing that this was the second such strike. He also vowed a military response to what he called “another terrorist act of the Kyiv regime.”

“Given that this is already the second terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, I am waiting for concrete proposals to improve security,” Putin said, adding that he had instructed the Federal Security Service, or FSB, and other law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident.

“There of course will be a response from Russia. The Defense Ministry is already working on the corresponding proposals,” Putin said.

In the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said that one span of the bridge used by automobiles was completely destroyed and must be rebuilt. Khusnullin said repairs to restore two-way traffic could take until November.

The couple killed in Monday’s attack on the bridge were described by officials as Russian citizens from the western Belgorod region.

Belgorod’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, speaking in a video posted to Telegram, said that two people from the Novooskolsky district had been killed while crossing the bridge in a passenger car and that their daughter was injured. “The worst thing is that her parents — mom and dad — were killed,” Gladkov said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry identified the couple as Alexei and Natalya Kulik, and the daughter as Angelina, age 14.

Hours after the attack, Ukrainian Security Service spokesman Artem Dekhtyarenko issued a cryptic statement that appeared to obliquely acknowledge Ukraine’s role in hitting the bridge.

“In view of the numerous requests from the media regarding another incident on the Crimean Bridge, we inform you that all details regarding the [explosion] organization will be revealed by the Security Service of Ukraine after our victory,” Dekhtyarenko posted, using an explosion emoji. “Meanwhile, we are watching with interest as one of the symbols of Putin’s regime once again failed to withstand the military load.”

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been grinding forward. Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, said Ukrainian forces had regained control of more than 81 square miles since the operation started on about June 7.

Maliar also said Ukrainian forces continued to advance near the eastern city of Bakhmut, particularly on its southern flank, but acknowledged that Russian troops were attacking in the vicinity of Kupyansk, southeast of the city of Kharkiv.

<i>Kunkle and Stern reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Ilyushina from Riga, Latvia. Natalia Abbakumova and Robyn Dixon in Riga, Latvia,  contributed to this report.</i>

Pray for Us Sinners: The Hail Mary Murder

Yale University

Fredrick Kunkle is a reporter on the Metro desk. He has written about transportation, politics, courts, police, and local government in Maryland and Virginia.

Fredrick Kunkle

David L. Stern has worked for news outlets in Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia. He has lived in Ukraine since 2009, covering the 2014 Maidan revolution, war in the country’s east and now Russia’s 2022 invasion.

David   Stern

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Mary Ilyushina, a reporter on the Foreign Desk of The Washington Post, covers Russia and the region. She began her career in independent Russian media before joining CNN’s Moscow bureau as a field producer in 2017. She has been with The Post since 2021. She speaks Russian, English, Ukrainian and Arabic.

Mary Ilyushina

Ukraine hits Kerch Bridge, but railway unharmed; Russia halts grain deal

the-washington-post

Crimea bridge damaged following alleged attack

via REUTERS

Verified videos

Donbas region

Russian combat capabilities

HIMARS

washpost

prism://prism.query/site,/world/europe&limit=20

The Washington Post provides the latest information and analysis on UK and European news. Includes news from the European Union, European commission news and European parliament news.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/world/&limit=20

The Washington Post World section provides information and analysis of breaking world news stories. In addition to our world news and video, Post World News offers discussions and blogs on major international news and economic issues.