LIVE. Moscow: “Crimean bridge open to traffic again” – Ukraine: “Intense Russian attacks in the east of the country” | War Ukraine and Russia

According to the Ukrainian army, there are intense Russian attacks in the east of the country. The situation is “difficult,” said army commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi. Near the city Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, the Russian army has launched one offensive to break through the Ukrainian lines.

The General Staff in Kiev says it front near Kupyansk the center of gravity of the fighting is. Ukrainian troops withstood the attack, the Ukrainian side said. According to an army spokesperson Russia rallied 100,000 troops at the sections Kupyansk and Lyman. The information could not be independently verified.

The Russian army is also sending more troops to BachmothSyrskyi said. Their mission is to stop the reconquest of the towns around Bachmut by Ukraine.

Bachmut in eastern Donetsk Oblast fell to the Russians after months of fighting. The city, which once had a population of 70,000, is now almost completely destroyed.

Traffic resumed on the Crimean Bridge in the night from Monday to Tuesday, although only one of the two lanes can be used. This is reported by the Russian authorities.

The strategically important bridge to the Crimea peninsula, annexed in 2014, was damaged in the night from Sunday to Monday. According to Russian sources, the bridge was attacked by special “surface drones”. Part of the track collapsed due to the explosions. Moscow holds Ukraine responsible and President Vladimir Putin threatened military retaliation.

The Kremlin previously said that “the terrorist regime in Kiev” had carried out an attack on the bridge and that a pillar was damaged. The Russian authorities spoke of an “emergency” in which two people, a married couple, had died. Their daughter was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, Russian media reported.

The bridge, opened in 2018, is of great importance for supplying Russian troops in Ukraine. Russia expects the bridge to reopen to traffic in two months.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that the grain deal can be extended even without Russia’s cooperation. To this end, he has sent letters to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He reported this in his daily video address on Monday evening.

Turkey and the United Nations were involved in the grain deal in July last year. Like Russia and Ukraine, they sent officials to a coordination center in Istanbul, whose tasks included inspecting grain ships from Ukraine. But now Moscow is withdrawing.

According to Zelensky, his country can continue to export grain through the Black Sea if supplies are protected from “Russian madness”. According to him, it is the perfect opportunity to show the world that “blackmail” should not determine who gets enough food on the table.

The United States has said it will continue to work with other countries on Ukraine’s grain deliveries, but that it does not intend to use military means to protect the shiploads of grain, said US National Security Spokesman John Kirby.

The deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea expired at midnight on Monday evening in Istanbul (23:00 Belgian time). Russia, as announced earlier in the day, has not agreed to a fourth extension of the agreements. The deal was in effect for a year.

It is not yet clear what the situation will look like in the near future. The last grain ship to operate under the grain deal left Ukraine on Sunday.

Russia withdrew its cooperation on Monday after threatening to do so several times. The country believes that the export of its own agricultural products is unfairly affected by obstacles resulting from international sanctions against Russia. According to the Kremlin, this must come to an end because these products themselves are not the target of sanctions. Only then would the grain deal be able to go back into effect.

The agreement is considered a rare diplomatic success in the nearly eighteen months of war between Ukraine and Russia. The agreements provided relief from the global food crisis. Almost 33 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products, mainly corn and wheat, have been exported under the deal. Of this, 2.2 percent went through the World Food Program (WFP) as food aid to countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen.

US President Joe Biden will meet Tuesday with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who is on a peacekeeping mission for the war in Ukraine on behalf of the pope. The envoy previously visited Moscow and Kiev.

Biden and Zuppi will talk, according to the White House, about “the suffering caused by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine,” the efforts of both the United States and the Vatican to provide humanitarian assistance, and the Holy See’s focus on the repatriation of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russian territories.

In Moscow last month, Zuppi spoke with Patriarch Kirill, the spiritual leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. Before that, he had a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev. The Vatican announced earlier on Monday that Zuppi would also travel to Washington on behalf of Pope Francis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Monday for security measures to be tightened on the Crimean Bridge following the recent attack by Ukraine. In addition, the Russian also threatened with “an answer” to what he called an “act of terror”.

“Being the second terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, I expect concrete proposals to protect this important and strategic transport infrastructure,” Putin said at a televised government meeting.

“There will certainly be an answer from Russia. The Ministry of Defense is preparing appropriate proposals,” the Russian president warned.

According to Putin, the bridge was seriously damaged by the “terrorist act”, but pillars would have remained intact. The attack would have been the work of Ukraine, just like the one in October last year when part of the road surface collapsed into the sea.

The Kremlin previously said that “the terrorist regime in Kiev” had carried out an attack on the bridge in the night from Sunday to Monday and that a pillar was damaged. The Russian authorities spoke of an “emergency” in which two people, a married couple, had died. Their daughter was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, Russian media reported.

The bridge, opened in 2018, is of great importance for supplying Russian troops in Ukraine. Russia expects the bridge to reopen to traffic in two months.

A Russian fighter jet crashed over the Sea of ​​Azov in the Russian-Ukrainian border region on Monday afternoon. The pilot lost his life. This is reported by the mayor of the city of Yeysk, Roman Bublik, on Telegram.

The engine of the Sukhoi Su-25 would have failed, said mayor Boeblik. That happened during a training flight, it still sounds.

Fighter jets often take off from the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, of which Jeysk is a part, and carry out attacks on Ukraine.

It is not the first serious accident near Yejsk since the Russians invaded Ukraine in February last year. In October, a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber crashed into a house. More than ten people were killed.

The United States is giving $500 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The US agency for international development, USAID, pledged the additional financial support during a visit to Ukraine by Samantha Power, USAID’s chief executive. According to the United Nations, some 17 million people are in need since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

US aid will be delivered to Ukraine through the United Nations and other organizations. The purpose of the sum is to support civilians who had to flee the battle or who were otherwise impacted by the war. Relief supplies such as food, health products and drinking water are distributed.

Since the beginning of the Russian offensive war in Ukraine, the United States has already donated more than 2.6 billion dollars (about 2.3 billion euros) in humanitarian aid.