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Ukraine Invasion Day 229: pot, kettle, Russia, terrorism [1]

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Date: 2022-10-09

Ukrainians Fear Russian Reprisals for Crimea Bridge Attack. It happened.

Though Ukrainian officials made no secret of their glee, the government in Kyiv had yet to publicly take responsibility for the attack. Another senior Ukrainian official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that Ukraine’s intelligence services were behind the bombing, and said that explosives had been loaded onto a truck that was driven onto the bridge and detonated. The official did not, however, know what happened to the driver of the truck or whether the driver had even known about the bomb.

A day after the explosion, details about how it was carried out remained spotty.

According to Russia, the truck exploded as a train pulling seven fuel tanks was passing on a parallel rail, setting them afire. If that timing was deliberate, it would suggest either luck or a fair degree of sophistication to the operation.

Mr. Putin, in his first comments about the explosion, did not hesitate to point a finger at Ukraine on Sunday. “There is no doubt that this is a terrorist attack aimed at destroying the critically important civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation,” he said.

“The operation showed the failure of the Russian system to guarantee the security even of the most significant and sacred targets,” the official said. “The bridge is an artificial umbilical cord that connects the thief to his stolen property. All that is unnatural and obtained illegally must be and will be destroyed.”

Though Russian officials made a show of reopening the bridge to some automobile and train traffic, the extent of the damage, as well as the timeline for Moscow to resume the transport of much-needed military equipment and ammunition, remains unclear. Even so, a senior Ukrainian military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a government prohibition on discussing the attack, graded the success of the attack as “excellent.”

Many had been bracing for a severe Russian response to Saturday’s attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge , which analysts described as a significant blow to Moscow, if more symbolic than practical. The blast damaged a span that holds personal importance for President Vladimir V. Putin, and is crucial for resupplying Russian forces as they defend against an intensifying Ukrainian counteroffensive along the southern front.

KYIV, Ukraine — With some prominent Russians calling for fierce reprisals after an explosion crippled Russia’s sole bridge to Crimea, the Kremlin on Sunday launched a barrage of rockets at Ukrainian civilian areas, sending a deadly reminder that for all its battlefield losses, Moscow can still inflict mass misery.

Yesterday, Putin called the Crimean Bridge Bombing a Terrorist Act then ordered a missile strike killing at least 13 civilians and injuring 89 others in Zaporizhzhia City 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/jzdEMAHtfH

The strikes were just the latest in weeks of assaults on civilians that have shaken Zaporizhzhia and other Ukrainian cities. Zaporizhzhya, a large regional center on the Dnipro River, has also been a major humanitarian hub for residents of smaller towns and cities who have fled intense fighting closer to home.

Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said in a Telegram post on Sunday morning that there might still be people trapped in the rubble in the city, which Russian forces have targeted relentlessly in recent days.

Photos in Ukrainian news outlets showed piles of rubble and a partially collapsed building illuminated by fires burning around it. Video taken at the scene of the strike after daybreak Sunday showed dozens of emergency workers and volunteers digging through the rubble looking for survivors.

x Remember this whenever you hear that Russia invaded because it feared that Ukraine or NATO would attack them. Here's how they really felt: that Ukraine was helpless and NATO was useless ⤵️ https://t.co/sRSN60VVG9 — Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) October 9, 2022

President Joe Biden’s warning last week that the world is close to nuclear Armageddon is, perhaps, the most shocking illustration of this escalation. Putin’s repeated threats to use a nuclear weapon reflect his criminal recklessness and growing desperation.

It still seems unlikely that, detached from reality although he appears, he wants to deliberately provoke a suicidal nuclear confrontation with the US and Nato. Biden may be loudly raising such fears in order to deter him. But such rationalisations offer scant consolation in a profoundly irrational situation.

Shockwaves from Putin’s war are rocking global energy supplies and markets in previously unimagined ways. Last week’s decision by Opec plus Russia to cut global oil production could greatly exacerbate Europe’s problems this winter, causing serious hardship. Yet EU attempts to cap gas and oil prices are bedevilled by national differences.

The geopolitical impact of Opec’s decision may be more momentous still. At political cost to himself, Biden had personally appealed to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf exporters to boost output. Now, the US angrily accuses Opec of backing Russia’s war. Most of its members are supposedly western allies. Have they switched sides?

If that is the case, it would exacerbate another troubling symptom of Putin plague: the separating out of leading countries into two opposing camps. In one corner, China and India, which continue to buy Russian oil and refuse to impose sanctions, plus likeminded authoritarian regimes such as Iran. In the other corner, the US, UK, other members of the G7 and the EU.

In this developing confrontation, much more is at stake than Ukraine’s sovereignty. On life support, it seems, is the entire postwar consensus underpinning global security, nuclear non-proliferation, free trade and international law.

The war’s spreading economic impact sickens the world. As global recession beckons, stock exchanges turn bearish, inflation and debt levels rise, Ukraine’s grain exports are threatened by a resumed Black Sea blockade and climate targets are jettisoned wholesale amid a panicky stampede back to fossil fuels, typified by the UK.

For Kyiv, Putin’s war machine is not the only problem. It is running out of money. The US has pledged $1.5bn a month in non-military aid. But the IMF calculates that Ukraine needs $5bn a month just to keep its economy going. Washington and Kyiv accuse the EU of failing to do its bit. Of €9bn promised by Brussels in May, only €1bn has been paid out.

www.theguardian.com/...

x And as I have written and said repeatedly, even if that threat level is .1%, Biden, XI, and all responsible leaders in the world should be doing everything to reduce it to an even lower probability. END THREAD 2. — Michael McFaul (@McFaul) October 9, 2022

x NYT: What We Know About Putin’s Nuclear Threats in Ukraine Warhttps://t.co/LTZxnNJGwQ — RSSNews (@rss_newsfeed) October 10, 2022

x ⚡️The European Commission is working on a bill that would allow seizing assets subject to sanctions against the Russian Federation and using them as a contribution to the recovery of Ukraine, — Bloomberg.

⚡@Flash_news_ua — FLASH (@Flash_news_ua) October 9, 2022

x On this front the rashists bombarded Ivanivka, Pershotravneve, Izyums'ke, Hrekivka, Makiyivka, Ridkodub, Nevs'ke, Terny, Serebryanka and Bilohorivka.



–General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine operational information as of 18:00 on 9 October 2022 pic.twitter.com/gxadBYtIqS — Michael MacKay (@mhmck) October 9, 2022

x "They killed everything in my soul."



Volodymyr Obodzinskyi lost his entire family in early March, when a Russian air strike hit his house and killed his 40 yo wife, Natalya, his 14 yo son Volodymyr, 19 yo daughter Ivanka, and her 1 yo twins. - by @RFERLpic.twitter.com/MTY0DkkSGv — Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) October 8, 2022

x Russian Losses in Ukraine by Region of Origin. Sample taken from Russian local/regional media sources with confirmed deaths. Update at c. 3400 08.10.22 pic.twitter.com/9up8TfHf8C — Arcade Atticus (@d13567412) October 8, 2022

x You should write a book about this — Renee DiResta (@noUpside) October 9, 2022

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2022/10/9/2127928/-Ukraine-Invasion-Day-229-pot-kettle-Russia-terrorism

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