Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv claims devastating strike on Crimea bridge destroyed 50 military vehicles

The Russian city of Nizhnekamsk in the central region of Tatarstan will cancel all public events on Friday amid the threat of drone attacks from Ukraine, mayor Radmir Belyayev said on his Telegram channel.

Several major industrial facilities, including Sibur’s Nizhnekamskneftekhim petrochemical plant and Tatneft’s TANECO oil refinery, are located in the area. Belyayev did not mention any damage ⁠caused by drones.

Russia downed down 231 Ukrainian drones overnight, news agencies said, citing the defence ministry.

The major threat comes on the day country is marking Russia Day ⁠(12 June) with ​a ⁠national holiday.

The city of Togliatti, home to ‌Russia’s biggest carmaker Avtovaz and ​some industrial ‌facilities, has come under ⁠drone attack, Samara ⁠region governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said on ‌Telegram, ​without giving details.

The Kremlin has shrugged off the prospect of new European Union sanctions against its banks, saying they ⁠had already been operating under sanctions for a long time and this had not stopped them from making a profit.

The EU has proposed a ⁠new package of ​sanctions against ⁠Russia for its war in Ukraine, heavily targeting the country’s banks and crypto ⁠networks in an effort to weaken its ​financial ⁠system.

“Our largest banks ‌have long been under sanctions. This does not prevent the banks from earning large profits, ‌developing, maintaining absolute stability,” Kremlin spokesperson ‌Dmitry Peskov told journalists, when asked about the sector’s ability to weather new restrictions.

Peskov highlighted Wednesday’s comments ⁠by president Vladimir Putin about the overall economic situation being under control.

“The same can be said about the banking sector. Our central bank has repeatedly spoken about this; it is monitoring the situation quite closely and taking the ‌necessary measures to maintain this stability,” he ​said.

Sanctions, high interest rates, and ‌war spending have taken ⁠a toll on Russia’s $3 trillion economy, which ⁠contracted by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, marking its ‌first quarterly ​decline since early 2023.

The governing body of world chess has suspended Russia – for decades the dominant force in the game – after a successful ⁠legal challenge by Ukraine.

An international tribunal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in March upheld a complaint by Ukraine that Russia’s chess federation had usurped control of the game in areas of Ukraine captured by Russian forces since 2022. It gave Russia 90 days to relinquish control of chess bodies in five regions of Ukraine and stop holding tournaments there.

But on Wednesday the International ⁠Chess Federation (FIDE) – which is headed by Russia’s former deputy prime minister ​Arkady ⁠Dvorkovich – said Russia had not complied with the deadline and it had therefore decided to “impose the sanction of temporary suspension of (Russia’s) membership… with immediate effect”.

At least two people were killed and another 10 injured in a Ukraine attack on ⁠Russia’s border region of Bryansk, acting regional governor Yegor Kovalchuk said.

Two were killed and another two injured in shelling of the Suzemka area close to the border, with another seven wounded in an attack on petrol stations in Starodub some 110km (68 miles), he said, adding that a five-year-old boy was also injured in a separate drone attack.

Bryansk, a Russian oblast on the border with Ukraine, has frequently been targeted by Ukrainian forces in response to Russian aggression on its border villages.

The Ukrainian military has claimed it has successfully destroyed 50 military vehicles in a strike on the Russia-occupied Armiansk bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Ukraine.

The attack was confirmed by Ukraine’s 1st Separate Assault Regiment Da Vinci which said that “the enemy’s important logistical route is completely paralysed”.

It added that the bridge is out of commission now and additional attacks are not needed.

Russian military vehicles hit in the attack were loaded with ammunition and fuel to be used near Zaporizhzhia oblast.

Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said the drone attack campaign has reduced the traffic using the Novorossiya highway – a critical Russian military supply route through occupied southern Ukraine to Crimea – by more than two thirds over the past month.

Within another month, Ukraine would have total control over the road, said Brovdi, who is best known by his call sign “Madyar”, a nod to his ethnic Hungarian roots.

Ukraine’s escalating drone strikes across Russian-occupied parts of the country have disrupted military logistics and fuel supplies, prompting authorities last month to introduce fuel rationing in Crimea.

“We will isolate Crimea in the near future,” Brovdi told Reuters in his cramped cubicle inside the bunker, as he sipped black tea and smoked one cigarette after another.

Brovdi said striking vehicles on the exposed highway as “as easy as shooting partridges in an open field”.

He added that one of his strategic aims was to force Moscow to pull back troops rather than push forward.

Russia has claimed its forces have captured two new settlements – Rozkishne village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, near the key town of Kostiantynivka, and Okhrimivka, in the ⁠neighbouring Kharkiv region.

Ukrainian reports gave no indication of either settlement changing hands, but the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said Russian forces had launched attacks around Okhrimivka.

A separate Ukrainian account described difficult conditions for Kyiv’s forces ⁠around Kostiantynivka, which has long withstood ​Russian ⁠assaults.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had taken control of Rozkishne after an intelligence operation and deployment of artillery and drones.

Rozkishne is about 30km (18 miles) west of ​Kostiantynivka, long ⁠a target of Moscow’s ‌military as part of its drive to advance through eastern Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had established control over eastern districts of the town on Thursday amid street fighting.

The Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske on Wednesday quoted the commander of Ukraine’s 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade, Serhiy Yaryi, as saying the Ukrainian force defending the ⁠town was now “semi-encircled” because of Russian advances to the east.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a congratulatory message to Russian president Vladimir Putin on Russia’s National Day, ⁠voicing full support for Moscow’s domestic and foreign policies, state media KCNA said this morning.

Kim said ties between North Korea and Russia were strengthening into an alliance based on a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty, and pledged to always be with Russia, KCNA reported.

Separately, Russian and ⁠North Korean officials visited a monument and cemetery ​of ⁠fallen Soviet Army ‌fighters to mark Russia’s National Day, while Russia’s embassy hosted a reception for North Korean senior ‌officials, KCNA said.

Ties between the two countries have been deepening amid North Korea’s deployment of thousands of troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Fuel stations on the Russian-held Crimean peninsula were out of petrol yesterday, Reuters witnesses said, as a Ukrainian campaign against supply lines to the peninsula escalates.

A Reuters witness in Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city, said that there was no fuel at most local petrol stations, with supplies struggling even to keep up with a rationing regime imposed in recent weeks.

Another, in the resort town of Yevpatoriya, said that there was a long queue outside the single working petrol station there. Ukraine has been intensifying drone strikes on supply lines to the peninsula, which Russia ⁠seized from Kyiv in 2014.

Local authorities have imposed fuel rationing ​regimes, ⁠with some foodstuffs also running short.

Fuel shortages in Russia have been reported by the media and on social media in around a dozen regions, according to data compiled by Reuters. Besides Russian-held Crimea, only two regions in Siberia have officially confirmed the shortages.

Most other regions have said that the situation is under control and some disruptions ​were ⁠caused by panic buying. Moscow has denied there were ‌any problems with fuel supplies.