Russia-Ukraine war live: eight arrests reported after Crimea bridge attack; Russia sustains losses in southern Ukraine | World news
Russia detains eight over Crimea bridge attack, names alleged organiser – reports
Eight people have been detained over the weekend’s attack on the Crimea bridge, and Russia’s security forces have named a senior figure from Ukraine as being behind them, according to reports from the state-owned Tass news agency.
It quotes a statement from the Federal Security Service (FSB) saying:
The Federal Security Service, together with the Investigative Committee, established that the organiser of the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge was the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, its head Kyrylo Budanov, employees and agents.
Currently, five citizens of Russia, three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia, who participated in the preparation of the crime, have been detained within the framework of the criminal case.
The FSB claims that the explosives which caused a section of the bridge to collapse were sent from Odessa through Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia. Tass reports that the cargo carrying the explosives was being sent to a non-existent company in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Key events
Ukrainian MP Lisa Yasko has been interviewed from Strasbourg by Sky News in the UK, and has said that delays in delivering assistance to Ukraine were “incredibly frustrating”, and that she felt little comfort from suggestions that there were no signs Russia was about to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine. She told viewers:
I know that sometimes, some western countries, they’re just far and they don’t feel the urgency, which is incredibly frustrating for us. Because you know, we don’t have time for discussion. So we are screaming, we are trying to to do everything possible to defend with our weapons, our people, every second.
Asked about the head of British GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming, talking down the prospect of the use of nuclear weapons, she said:
I don’t think it can offer me a comfort, because the threat of nuclear war is very, very high. We understand that Putin doesn’t have any logic anymore. It’s not possible to justify Putin anymore. We understand that he is in the final battle of his life, where he wants to prove to all the world that he can do whatever he wants, including taking lands, killing thousands of people, destroying infrastructure, and we understand that nuclear threats and a strike is very possible.
Yesterday Fleming said “I would hope that we would see indicators if they started to go down that path,” and suggested that “The way in which the Russian military machine and President Putin are conducting this war, they are staying within the doctrine that we understand for their use, including for nuclear weapons.”
Here is a video clip from Joe Biden’s CNN TV interview, where he says that he believed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had underestimated the ferocity of Ukrainian defiance in the face of invasion. ‘I think … he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that he was going to be welcomed, and I think he just totally miscalculated,’ Biden said.
Russia’s state-owned news agency RIA Novosti is carrying some more details of the plot to damage the Crimea bridge which Russian security forces claim to have revealed today.
It reports:
In early August, the cargo was sent from the seaport of Odesa to the Bulgarian Ruse [port] … From Bulgaria it proceeded to the Georgian port of Poti , and then to Armenia. From 29 September to 3 October, at the Transalliance terminal in Yerevan, the cargo was cleared … On a DAF truck registered in Georgia, the cargo crossed the Russian-Georgian border on 4 October at the Upper Lars checkpoint, two days later it was delivered and unloaded at a wholesale base in Armavir.
On 7 October … the documents for the cargo were again changed. TEK-34 LLC from Ulyanovsk was indicated as the sender , and a non-existent company in the Crimea was indicated as the recipient.
The movement of cargo along the entire route was controlled by an employee of the main intelligence directorate of the ministry of defence of Ukraine, who introduced himself to the participants in the scheme as “Ivan Ivanovich”. To coordinate actions, he used a virtual anonymous number, as well as a phone registered to a resident of Kremenchug.
RIA reminds us that the explosion occurred on 8 October, and that the official account is “a truck exploded on the Crimean bridge after which seven tanks with fuel of a passing train caught fire. Two car spans partially collapsed, but the bridge arch supports were not damaged. Four people were killed, including a judge from Moscow.”
Polish pipeline operator Pern says leak detected in Druzhba oil pipeline
Polish pipeline operator Pern detected a leak on Tuesday evening in one line of the Druzhba pipeline, which carries oil from Russia to Europe, it said on Wednesday.
Pern said at this point the causes of the leak are unknown. It was detected in a section of the pipe around 70km from the central Polish city of Plock.
The second line of the pipeline, and other elements of Pern’s infrastructure, were working as normal, Pern said.
“At this point, all Pern services (technical, operational, in-house fire brigade and environmental protection) are taking action in accordance with the algorithms provided for this type of situation,” Reuters reports the operator said.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has claimed that five people were injured and 17 houses were damaged by fire from Ukrainian forces in the last 24 hours. Donetsk is one of the occupied regions that Russia has claimed to annex. The Donetsk People’s Republic was declared in 2014, and Russia, Syria and North Korea are the only UN member states to recognise it as a legitimate authority. The claims have not been independently verified.
Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has posted an update on Telegram on Ukraine’s military progress in the occupied Luhansk region. He writes:
The armed forces of Ukraine are moving forward little by little. The Russians are shelling our positions mainly with rocket and barrel artillery. The occupiers are building a multi-layer defence line in Luhansk region, the entire first section of the front line is mined by them. Our military has already encountered the first wave of partially mobilised Russians.
Luhansk is one of the region of occupied Ukraine which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex following a widely-derided “referendum”.
Russia detains eight over Crimea bridge attack, names alleged organiser – reports
Eight people have been detained over the weekend’s attack on the Crimea bridge, and Russia’s security forces have named a senior figure from Ukraine as being behind them, according to reports from the state-owned Tass news agency.
It quotes a statement from the Federal Security Service (FSB) saying:
The Federal Security Service, together with the Investigative Committee, established that the organiser of the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge was the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, its head Kyrylo Budanov, employees and agents.
Currently, five citizens of Russia, three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia, who participated in the preparation of the crime, have been detained within the framework of the criminal case.
The FSB claims that the explosives which caused a section of the bridge to collapse were sent from Odessa through Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia. Tass reports that the cargo carrying the explosives was being sent to a non-existent company in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
More than 20 Russians have sailed in yachts from North Pacific ports to South Korea, Reuters reports, as they flee to avoid military call-up to fight in Ukraine. Most have reportedly been refused entry.
There has been an exodus of conscription-age men from Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation on 21 September, but most fled by road, rail and air to Europe, and neighbouring former Soviet Union countries, like Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
On Tuesday, South Korean broadcaster KBS reported that at least 21 Russians had arrived aboard yachts at ports in the south of the country, but only two had been granted entry, while others were refused as authorities deemed their purpose “ambiguous”.
KBS reported that three yachts had docked in the southeastern port city of Pohang over the past several days, mostly carrying Russian men in their 20-30s.
An official at Pohang’s coast guard declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
A justice ministry official said he did not have details about the yacht cases, but Russians are in general allowed to enter the country without a visa as long as they obtain prior approval via South Korea’s electronic travel authorisation system.
The UK Ministry of Defence has published its latest update on the situation in Ukraine, in which it reports that 60% of the “Shahed” drones launched by Russia on 10 October were destroyed in the air. The drones are manufactured in Iran.
“These UAVs are slow and fly at low altitudes making lone aircraft easy to target using conventional air defences. There is a realistic possibility that Russia has achieved some success by attacking with several UAVs at the same time,” according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
Putin to attend Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit – report
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok next month, according to a report in the Bangkok Post, which cites an unnamed security source.
Both the G20 and Apec summits will be held in Southeast Asia in November, with gatherings overshadowed by the war in Ukraine. Ministerial meetings held over the past year have been marred by confrontation and walkouts.
Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden are reportedly expected to attend the G20 summit in Bali between 15 and 15th November, while Indonesia has also invited the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to attend. Apec will be held on 18 and 19 November.
On Tuesday, Lavrov said that Putin would not turn down a meeting with Biden in Bali. Talking on Russian state TV, he said that Moscow was open to talks with the west on the Ukraine war but had yet to receive any “serious offers” to negotiate.
He said US officials including the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, had said the US was willing to engage in discussions but Russia had refused. “This is a lie”, he added.
Biden is not expected to be at Apec and will instead return home to attend his granddaughter’s wedding ceremony, according to Thai media. It is not known whether Xi will attend Apec.
Would Lukashenko really throw Belarus into a war Russia is losing? Andrew Roth and Daniel Boffey tackle the question in a new analysis piece.
Alexander Lukashenko, the dictatorial leader of Belarus, has executed a careful balancing act during the war in Ukraine.
On 24 February, Russian troops that had massed on Belarusian territory surged across the border into Ukraine, using his country as a staging ground in the largest invasion in Europe since the second world war.
But the Belarusian leader has not joined the war directly or sent his own troops into the fight, at times saying that he felt the invasion was “dragging on”.
Now, meetings between Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin have once again raised fears he is about to enter the fray. Lukashenko has said that Belarus and Russia are to deploy a joint military group and that thousands of Russian troops will be arriving in his country in the coming days for drills.
“We emphasise once again that the tasks of the regional force group are purely defensive. And all activities carried out at the moment are aimed at providing a sufficient response to actions near our borders,” the Belarusian defence minister, Viktor Khrenin, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, sounded the alarm during a meeting of the G7 on Tuesday, proposing to send UN peacekeepers to the border between Ukraine and Belarus to prevent Lukashenko from launching a “provocation”.
Despite the warning signs, there is considerable doubt that Lukashenko is ready to throw his own forces into a war that Russia is losing in Ukraine, even if he is under pressure from Putin.
Energy exports appear to be helping Russia ride out Western sanctions, AFP reports.
Moscow says inflation is easing and employment is virtually full, contradicting the predictions of a catastrophe from many financial experts.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday offered some support to Russia’s view, saying recession will be less severe than expected due to oil exports and relatively stable domestic demand.
The IMF forecast the Russian economy to contract just 3.4% over the whole year, after contracting 21.8% during the second quarter at a quarterly annualised rate.
It was only in June that the IMF forecast an annual drop of 6%.
Biden, asked whether Putin will use nuclear weapons, says, ‘I don’t think he will’
When US President Joe Biden was asked in a Tuesday evening interview on CNN whether he thinks Putin will use nuclear weapons, he said, “I don’t think he will.” Biden was speaking after warning last week that the world faced the most acute nuclear threat for 60 years –since the Cuban missile crisis.
“The whole point I was making was it could lead to just a horrible outcome,” he told Tapper. “And not because anybody intends to turn it into a world war or anything, but just once you use a nuclear weapon, the mistakes that can be made, the miscalculations, who knows what would happen.”
Russia sustains losses in southern Ukraine
Russian troops have sustained equipment and personnel losses in Ukraine’s south, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing Ukraine’s Operational Command.
“Ukraine’s Operational Command ‘South’ reported that they completed over 300 fire missions, targeting and damaging two Russian Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers and an APC,” the Kyiv Independent said in a tweet.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be taking you through the latest developments for the next while.
Russian troops have sustained losses in Ukraine’s south following 300 fire missions, Ukraine’s Operational Command reported overnight.
Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN on Tuesday evening, US President Joe Biden said he doesn’t think Putin will use a tactical nuclear weapon. Biden was speaking after warning last week that the world faced the most acute nuclear threat for 60 years –since the Cuban missile crisis.
We’ll have more on this shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments in the conflict:
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Russia continued to attack key infrastructure in Ukraine with missile strikes on Tuesday. Amid warnings from the UN and some Nato countries that Moscow may be committing a war crime with its continuing deadly blitz on civilian targets, Russia’s defence ministry confirmed its troops continued to launch long-range airstrikes on Ukraine’s energy and military infrastructure.
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The leaders of the G7 condemned Russia’s most recent missile attacks on cities across Ukraine “in the strongest possible terms” and vowed to stand “firmly” with Kyiv “for as long as it takes”.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, asked G7 leaders to supply more air defence systems and for an international monitoring mission on the Belarusian border.
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The French president, Emmanuel Macron, described Russia’s attacks as “a profound change in the nature of this war”. During Russia’s strikes in recent days, cruise missiles and armed drones rained down on parks, playgrounds, power stations and other civilian targets.
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Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is a “rational actor who has miscalculated significantly,” US president Joe Biden said in a clip of a CNN interview broadcast on Tuesday.
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Ukrainian authorities said on Tuesday they exhumed the bodies of dozens of people, including civilians and a one-year-old baby, to determine the cause of death after the retreat of Russian troops from Lyman and Sviatohirsk, two recently liberated towns in the eastern Donetsk region.
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Roughly 30% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been hit by Russia since Monday, officials said. As millions in Ukraine are facing blackouts due to the attacks, the government has urged civilians to cut their electricity use and not use domestic appliances such as ovens and washing machines.
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The Kremlin has confirmed that Putin will meet Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Thursday to discuss Ukraine.
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Moscow would not turn down a meeting between Putin and Biden at the G20 meeting next month, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said. Moscow was open to talks with the west on the Ukraine war but had yet to receive any “serious offers” to negotiate, Lavrov said in an interview on Russian state television.
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Putin has told the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency that he is “open to dialogue” on the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
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Meanwhile the deputy head of the Zaporizhzhia power plant has been kidnapped by Russian forces, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company Energoatom said. Valeriy Martynyuk was taken on Monday and is being detained in an unknown location, Energoatom said in a post on Telegram.
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Elon Musk denied a report that he spoke with Putin before tweeting a proposal to end the war in Ukraine that would have seen territory permanently handed over to Russia.
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Belarus’ defence ministry said the joint deployment of forces with Russia on its borders is a defensive measure. The moves were to ensure “security” along the border between Belarus and Ukraine, it claimed.
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Russian strikes have damaged hundreds of cultural sites, Zelenskiy said as he urged the UN cultural agency to expel Russia, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Unesco World Heritage Committee.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/oct/12/russia-ukraine-war-live-russia-sustains-losses-in-southern-ukraine-biden-doesnt-think-putin-will-use-nuclear-weapons Russia-Ukraine war live: eight arrests reported after Crimea bridge attack; Russia sustains losses in southern Ukraine | World news