Five Russians are among eight people arrested in connection with the explosion that caused rail and cars on the Crimean bridge of 3.6 million dollars, the Russian intelligence service said on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service was behind Saturday’s attack on the 12-mile bridge, the longest in Europe, the FSB said. he said in a speech. Ukrainian officials praised the incident but have not officially claimed responsibility for the explosion, which Russia says killed three people.
“Currently, five citizens of Russia, three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia, who participated in the preparation of the crime, have been detained as part of the crime,” the FSB said, adding that several other detainees were involved in the incident. plan.
The FSB said the bombs were shipped out of the Ukrainian city of Odesa in August, and that three Ukrainians, two Georgians and an Armenian citizen were behind the plan to send them from Bulgaria through Georgia to Russia.
A Ukrainian citizen and five detained Russians prepared documents for a non-existent Crimean company to receive explosives, the agency said. The investigation was ongoing.
Other events:
NATO defense ministers met on Wednesday in Brussels to plan a plan to supply Ukraine with more weapons.
►Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Kazakhstan on the sidelines of a regional summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said. Erdoğan is committed to dialogue between Russia and the West.
There is no indication that Putin is preparing to use nuclear weapons, the Pentagon says
The Pentagon has not seen any signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to use nuclear weapons as his forces deplete in Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday. Mr. Austin made his brief remarks to the press in Brussels, where NATO partners met to discuss aid to Ukraine.
“Nuclear saber rattling is reckless and reckless,” Austin said. “We do not expect to see and hear such behavior from a major nuclear power. And this is dangerous. “
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the main needs of the war in Ukraine include air defense systems, machine guns, rocket launchers, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Milley blasted Russia’s recent attacks on Ukrainian cities, calling the “indiscriminate and deliberate attacks” a “war crime.”
— Tom Vanden Brook
Ukraine receives artillery, air defense systems from the US, Germany
The US and its allies are taking immediate steps to respond to Ukraine’s request for air defenses that could prevent major damage from missile strikes like those launched by Russia Monday and Tuesday.
Ukraine received the first IRIS-T air defense system from Germany and four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the US, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Wednesday. The deployment came quickly after this week’s Russian violence in much of Ukraine, in retaliation for a truck bomb that damaged a key Russian-built bridge in Crimea on Saturday.
The US also announced plans to send Ukraine eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS); two are expected to be delivered in the near future. In addition, the Netherlands said it would deliver $1.5 million worth of anti-aircraft weapons, and France said it would also contribute to Ukraine’s air defense.
“A new era of air defense has begun,” Reznikov said. “There is a moral imperative to save the sky to save our people.”
Drilling also causes a catastrophic blackout at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant
For the second time in five days, Europe’s second-largest nuclear power plant has been knocked off the grid by a bomb, again putting it at risk of a radiation hazard.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant lost power on Wednesday when a Russian missile damaged a station north of it, a local official said. Although the plant’s six reactors are idle, they need to be cooled for a long time to prevent overheating.
Energoatom said the external power source was fixed after eight hours and that emergency diesel generators — which rely on crude oil in the war zone — provided backup power for the time being, but he said a similar breakdown could happen at any time.
Experts have raised the alarm about the risk of continued fighting near the plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since the beginning of the war but is used by Ukrainian workers. Repeated short-term blackouts only increase the risk, researchers say.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has continued to call for the establishment of a protective zone around the site – Director General of the IAEA Rafael Grossi presented his case to Putin on Tuesday – but so far the fight on the side of the plant has not ended.
Biden: No progress in efforts to free Brittney Griner from Russian prison
US officials have made no progress in freeing WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner from a Moscow prison, President Joe Biden said Wednesday. Asked by reporters if there was any movement in the Griner case, Biden replied, “Not with Putin.”
In an interview on Tuesday with CNNMr Biden said he had “no intention” of meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at next month’s G20 summit in Indonesia – but that he would consider talks if Putin said he wanted to talk about Griner.
Griner, who plays basketball in Russia during the WNBA offseason, was arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport outside Moscow in February on drug charges. Griner admitted to having vape cans containing cannabis oil in her bag, but testified that she had packed them inadvertently and had no intent to commit a crime. He was sentenced to nine years in prison; His appeal hearing is scheduled for October 25.
– Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
Putin blames the US for the pipeline explosion, says Russia is ready to resume gas flows
Putin said on Wednesday that Russia is ready to resume the flow of gas to Europe via the only remaining link of the Nord Stream gas pipeline – and again blamed the US for the explosion that disrupted the system. The spokeswoman for the German government, Ms. Christiane Hoffmann, rejected the plan, saying that Russia has been selling unreliable gas since the start of the war.
European authorities are investigating the explosion that tore through the connections of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one of the two connections of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. US officials have dismissed Putin’s claims that the US wanted to disrupt efforts to encourage Europe to import cheaper natural gas.
Experts discuss Putin’s threat to use nukes in Ukraine
What does Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons mean for the security of millions of people in Ukraine and around the world, including the United States, within reach of Russian nuclear weapons?
USA TODAY spoke to a former intelligence officer Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, the former head of the CIA and many other nuclear security experts and analysts. All agreed with President Joe Biden’s assessment that the current situation is fraught with potential danger, including the increasing possibility that Putin decides to deploy one of the small nuclear weapons in his arsenal. Here’s what the experts had to say.
– Josh Meyer, USA TODAY
The explosive Kremlin plans to rebuild Ukraine by freezing Russian assets
A proposal by leading industrialized countries to use frozen Russian assets to support the reconstruction of Ukraine has drawn heavy criticism from Moscow.
“It’s just international competition,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
A G-7 statement released after Tuesday’s meeting called for “the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine, including finding ways to do so with money from Russia.” After the attacks began in February, the West imposed sanctions on the Bank of Russia. In addition to freezing Russian gold and foreign currency reserves, all transactions related to the management of securities and assets of the Bank of Russia, as well as transactions with any legal entity, fell under the ban.
