Ukraine-Russia war latest: Crimean bridge blown up in massive explosion, say Kyiv's special forces
The 12-mile-long Crimean Bridge, or Kerch Bridge, links Russia with the occupied peninsula which Russian troops annexed in 2014.
Footage showed an underwater explosion destroying a pillar of the bridge as Ukraine 's SBU vowed there was 'no place for any illegal Russian facilities on the territory of our state'.
The SBU said it rigged the bridge's pillars with 1,100kg of explosives. 'The Crimean Bridge is an absolutely legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops,' it said.
It comes after Moscow told Ukraine that it would only agree to end the war if Kyiv gives up big chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army, according to a memorandum.
'Savage' Russian attack on Sumy shows need for sanctions, says Zelensky
Russia's 'savage' attack on Sumy shows the need for further sanctions on the Kremlin, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
'It is obvious: without global pressure – without decisive actions from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who has the power – Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire,' he said.
'Not a single day goes by without Russia striking Ukrainian cities and villages. Every day, we lose our people to Russian terror. Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defence.
'I am grateful to everyone around the world who is promoting exactly this agenda: sanctions for aggression and the killing of people, and assistance in defending the lives of Ukrainians.'
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 21:00
Inside Operation Spiderweb: Ukraine's drone triumph is a blow against Russia that will spook friend and foe alike
Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb is blow to Russia that will spook friend and foe alike
Operation Spiderweb is a triumph of intelligence and technological cunning that our enemies will be studying, says world affairs editor Sam Kiley
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 20:00
Medvedev says Russia seeks victory, not compromise, in talks with Ukraine
Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that the point of holding peace talks with Ukraine was to ensure a swift and complete Russian victory.
"The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime," the hawkish deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council said on Telegram.
"That's what the Russian Memorandum published yesterday is about."
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 19:00
Sanctions on Russia needed as Putin doesn't want ceasefire, says Zelensky's aide
Russia does not want a ceasefire and new sanctions are needed now to force it to pursue peace, the chief of staff to the Ukrainian president said yesterday.
"The Russians are doing everything to not cease firing and continue the war. New sanctions now are very important," said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president's office.
Mr Yermak posted his remarks on Telegram, hours after the conclusion of peace talks in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 18:00
Watch moment Russia's Crimean bridge blown up in huge explosion by Ukraine forces
Watch moment Russia's Crimean bridge blown up in huge explosion by Ukraine forces
Video footage has captured the moment a bridge linking Russia and Crimea is blown up in a huge explosion carried out by Ukraine's special forces. The 12-mile-long Crimean Bridge, or Kerch Bridge, links Russia with the occupied peninsula which Russian troops annexed in 2014. Footage shows an underwater explosion destroying a pillar of the bridge as Ukraine's SBU vowed there was 'no place for any illegal Russian facilities on the territory of our state'. The SBU said it rigged the bridge's pillars with 1,100kg of explosives. 'The Crimean Bridge is an absolutely legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops,' it said.
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 17:00
Pictured: Crimean bridge underwater explosion
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 16:00
Pictured: Soldiers of Ukraine's 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade fire a Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions in Donetsk
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 15:30
Ukraine invited to Nato summit, says Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine has received an invitation to attend the upcoming Nato summit at The Hague.
There had been uncertainty about whether Kyiv would be invited given Donald Trump's stance on blocking Ukraine from joining Nato.
'We were invited to the Nato summit. I think this is important,' the Ukrainian president said after he held a meeting with the military alliance's secretary general Mark Rutte in Vilnius.
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 15:00
Russia accuses Ukraine of terrorism after railway bridge blasts
Russia's state Investigative Committee accused Ukraine on Tuesday of carrying out "acts of terrorism" by blowing up two railway bridges in Russia over the weekend.
The attacks were planned to target hundreds of civilians, the committee said on Telegram. It said seven people were killed and 113 injured, including children, when two trains crashed in Russia's Kursk and Bryansk regions as a result of the attacks.
Alexander Butler3 June 2025 14:47
Watch: Ukraine blows up bridge linking Russia and Crimea
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
School-leavers losing their lives for Russia in Putin's war with Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly promised that no 18-year-olds called up to serve Russia will be sent to fight in Ukraine, but a BBC Russian investigation has found at least 245 soldiers of that age have been killed there in the past two government rules mean teenagers fresh out of school have been able to bypass military service and go straight into the regular army as contract may make up only a fraction of Russian losses, but cash bonuses and patriotic propaganda have made signing up an attractive Petlinsky enlisted two weeks after his 18th birthday. He was killed in Ukraine just 20 days later: one of hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine which has also claimed the lives of at least 13,500 Ukrainian civilians since Putin launched the invasion in February 2022. Petlinsky's aunt Ekaterina said he had dreamed of a career in medicine and won a place at a medical college in Chelyabinsk, an industrial regional centre in the Urals."But Sasha had another dream," she told a school memorial event. "When the special military operation began, Sasha was 15. And he dreamed of going to the front."In Ukraine, the call-up age is has managed to avoid a national mobilisation by offering lavish sums to men of fighting age - an especially attractive deal for those in poorer regions with few job men had to have at least three months of conscript service under their belts before signing a restriction was quietly dropped in April 2023, despite protests from some MPs, so now any young man who has reached the age of 18 and finished school can sign up to join the education system has ensured they are ready to enlist. Since the full-scale invasion began, teachers have been required by law to hold classes dedicated to the "special military operation", as the war is officially returning from the front visit schools to talk about their experiences, children are taught how to make camouflage nets and trench candles, and even nursery school pupils are encouraged to send letters and drawings to the the start of the last school year on 1 September 2024, a new subject was brought into the a throwback to the Soviet era, senior students are once again being taught how to use Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades as part of a course called "The Basics of Safety and Homeland Defence".In many regions, military recruiters now attend careers lessons in schools and technical colleges, telling young people how to sign up as contract soldiers after they Ivanov grew up in a small village in Siberia and dropped out of college where he was learning to be a got into trouble with police, and when he was accused of robbing a small shop in November 2024, he complained to his mother and girlfriend he had been beaten into giving a confession. His friend Mikhail told the BBC that Vitaly had always planned to do his military service when he turned 18. Then, together, they would go and find work building roads in Kazan, a city about 3,700km (2,300 miles) to the he signed a contract to join the army. His family have not ruled out that it was the police who "persuaded" day before he left he called his mother, Anna, to say he was about to leave."I'm off to the North-Eastern Military District," he other words, he was heading for and Alexander reached the frontline at about the same time in last message home on 5 February was to say he was being sent into combat."This was his first and last combat mission," says enlistment office rang her a month later to say he had died on 11 February. As part of BBC Russian's ongoing project using open sources to count Russia's war dead, we have identified and confirmed 245 names of 18-year-old contract soldiers killed in Ukraine between April 2023 - when the rules for joining up were eased - and July were enlisted as contract servicemen and, judging from published obituaries, most joined the armed forces according to our research, since the start of the full-scale invasion at least 2,812 Russian men aged 18-20 years have been killed in BBC's figures are based on open-source information and because not every death is publicly reported, the real losses are bound to be late July the BBC had established the names of 120,343 Russian soldiers killed during the full-scale war. Military experts estimate that makes up 45-65% of the real death toll, which would equate to 185,143 to 267,500 dead. When Alexander Petlinksy turned 18 on 31 January, the first thing he did was to apply to take a year out of college so he could sign a contract with the Defence he had wanted to become a doctor, he also dreamed of going to fight in next month he was already at the front, and on 9 March he died."As a citizen of the Russian Federation, I am proud of my son," his mother, Elena, told the BBC."But as a mother - I can't cope with this loss."She declined to say friend Anastasia says the fact that 18-year-olds are signing contracts to join the army is now a very "painful subject" for her."They're young and naive, and there's so much they don't understand," she says. "They just don't grasp the full responsibility of what they're doing."
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
Ukraine facing fierce fighting around eastern city of Pokrovsk, Zelenskiy says
July 25 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukrainian forces were facing fierce fighting around the city of Pokrovsk in the east, a logistics hub near which Russia has been announcing the capture of villages on an almost daily basis. Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, told a meeting of senior officials that the situation around Pokrovsk was the current focal point of its attention in the war, which began when Russia invaded in February 2022. "All operational directions were covered, with particular focus on Pokrovsk. It receives the most attention," Zelenskiy said. Ukrainian forces, he said, were also "continuing to act" in border areas in the northern Sumy region, where Russian troops have gained a foothold in recent weeks. Syrskyi, in a separate report on the Telegram messaging app, described Pokrovsk and five other sectors as among the most difficult theatres along the 1,000-km (620-mile) front. "The Russian Federation is paying the maximum price for attempting a 'summer offensive,'" Syrskyi wrote. Russian forces have for months been trying to close in on Pokrovsk, a road and rail hub whose pre-war population of about 60,000 has been all but evacuated. Syrskyi in May reported that Kyiv's troops had stabilised the situation around the town, also the site of the only colliery in Ukraine producing coking coal for the country's steel industry. Russia's Defence Ministry on Thursday announced the capture of two villages on either side of Pokrovsk -- Zvirove to the west and Novoekonomichne to the east. A third village near the city -- Novotoretske -- was declared by Moscow to be "liberated" earlier in the week. Ukrainian officials have made no acknowledgement that the villages have changed hands. The General Staff of Ukraine's military said in an evening report that two of them -- Zvirove and Novoekonomichne - were in areas where Russian troops were trying to penetrate Ukrainian defences. In Sumy region, where Russian troops are trying to establish what Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin calls a "buffer zone", the popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said Kyiv's forces had retaken a previously lost village. DeepState, which relies on open source reports to track the presence of Russian forces, said Ukrainian troops had restored control over the village of Kindrativka. There was no official comment from either side.
Reuters
7 hours ago
- Reuters
Trump says he wants to maintain nuclear limits with Russia
WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would like to maintain the limits on U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons deployments set in the 2010 New START agreement, which expires in February. "That's not an agreement you want expiring. We're starting to work on that," Trump told reporters as he exited the White House on a trip to Scotland. It was the first time since taking office that Trump has said he wants to maintain the treaty's limits on strategic nuclear weapons deployments when it expires on February 5. "When you take off nuclear restrictions, that's a big problem," Trump said. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, is the last remaining nuclear arms reduction accord between the world's largest nuclear powers. It restricts Russia and the U.S. to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic warheads on 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and bombers. Former U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin extended the treaty for five years in 2021 but, as written, the pact cannot be extended further. Trump opposed an extension in his first term, calling instead for a new treaty that included China, which spurned the proposal. Trump has been an advocate for reining in nuclear weapons. He said in February that he would like to have conversations with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping about limiting their nuclear arsenals. U.S.-Russia relations are at their lowest point in more than 60 years, in part fueled by Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine and his development of exotic new weapons systems. With New START's expiration, the U.S. and Russia could begin deploying more strategic warheads and each could find it harder to gauge the other's intentions, arms control advocates warn.
