Russia steps up shelling in Ukraine after Crimea bridge explosion | Ukraine: The Latest | Podcast

Day 229. Today, we discuss Putin’s ongoing escalation of strikes against Ukraine, following damage to a key bridge linking Crimea and Russia in an explosion on Saturday, October 8th. The team dig into why the Kerch bridge is so important to Putin and what his furious response means.

Contributors:

Claire Hubble (Host). Follow Claire on Twitter @byclairehubble.
Dom Nicholls (Associate Editor, Defence). Follow Dom on Twitter @DomNicholls.
James Kilner (Correspondent). Follow James on Twitter @jkjourno.
Roland Oliphant (Senior Foreign Correspondent). Follow Roland on Twitter @RolandOliphant.

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[anthonyshowers]

The bridge has no use to Ukraine, it’s time to destroy this bridge completely from the Ukrainian waters, and territory.

[willmccormick]

Great stuff. One little thing to tell your journalist. Kharkiv is pronounced without the first K as "Harkiv". I know. I lived there 13 years and still have a home there.

[abatesnz]

Now that's a better Liz Truss quote!

[jasonkozlow]

Lol funny how Russia couldn't even take out a glass bridge

[capoeirastronaut]

The kamikaze drones are basically 'doodlebugs', in WW2 terminology..

[PapaDutch]

I don't think it was the truck, having slowed the video down and looked at the direction flying debris was moving in.

The blast after the initial flare appears to come from the train span

[jamesbohlman]

The Ruskies keep talking about fighting directly with NATO forces, but I don't see how they survive the Ukrainian Army.

[davidelliott]

Does Russia have any idea how the bridge was hit? Hopefully Ukraine can finish the job very soon.

[considerthis]

The bridge has two roads, each with two lanes travelling in opposite directions. One road was running towards Crimea was severed and destroyed over 100 metres or so.

[thomasschlieben]

Yeah I like the style, commentators are given time to explore their feelings more give a deeper analysis at times.

[shaughnprestidge]

It can’t have been a truck bomb. Satellite footage shows the destroyed spans of the bridge to be in a different location from the position of the truck. The truck had reached the incline when the explosion occurred but that part of the bridge was undamaged. Also the explosion seemed to originate to the side of the truck rather than inside it. Some other video footage also showed security inspecting inside the back of the truck before it headed onto the bridge. Thirdly we have seen the damage to the Kerson bridges from all the downward missile strikes and they only made holes in the bridge. Bridge engineering is designed to resist downward forces through the use of tension in steel and compression in concrete. An upward blast from just below the bridge or from the side is a more likely scenario to force a collapse of the bridge as it did.

[jamesparsons]

Atacms might already be in Ukraine hands! (300) kms... bang!

[geoffhunter]

Two sites now have closely examined the CCTV just prior to the explosion the first Suchomimus shows a boats bow the 2nd also shows a blunt bow like a Dory or a barge and remember two weeks ago a remote controlled Skiff was washed up on the Crimea Coast!

[Deadlycalling]

The truck that's meant to be the bomb is in the right lane, yet its the left lane that's been blown up, it makes no sense, that a truck bombs blast wave would leave the lane its on completely undamaged

[Paulus]

Chemical weapons would logically come before nuclear. What is Surovikin's connection to chemical weapons, if any?

[davidshaw]

How do we get to the point of negotiating a long-term stable peace plan here?

[Valdagast]

The leaders of the CARs were busy washing their hair.

[anthonyshowers]

The more I listen to this war, the more I see Russia as a Eastern country, the killing civilians, instead of fighting military to military is a east way of doing warfare. So I believe we need to treat Russians like Syria and leave them in their country to blame, murder each other, they do not want to move forward and step over their ego . Once they are removed from Ukraine, NATO needs to move in so business can get back to business, but we will need to keep Ukraine, Poland, Etc heavily watched over and armed, the Russian people who have left Russia are and should be looked at as brave people who saw the corruption in Russia and know there is nothing left to do there .

[gbthegreat]

Who is supplying Russia? Who is supplying the supplier of Russia?!

[fridtjofharder]

6:08 this is not true. Contrary to common misconception, neither a consulate nor an embassy are legally territory of the guest state (Germany). Both are legally territory of the receiving state (Ukraine), but the receving state refrains from exerting its territorial rights on the premises. But whatever, a consulate and an embassy do not have different legal status, as is falsely claimed here. Obviously any attack on a diplomatic mission is a grave assault on international customs (needless to say the Russian attacks are a grave assault on the Ukrainian people, whatever the legal details of embassies and consulates are).