Russia-Ukraine war news: Putin to convene national security council; Zaporizhzhia hit again overnight – live

Putin calls blast on Crimea-Russia bridge an ‘act of terror’

Peter Beaumont

Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine directly for the blast at a vital bridge linking Russia and Crimea, describing the weekend attack as “act of terror” carried out by “Ukrainian secret services” amid growing expectation that the Kremlin plans an imminent and harsh escalation of its war.

The Russian president released a video on Sunday night on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel, saying:

There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure …

This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services.”

Putin spoke after meeting Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s investigative committee, who was presenting findings into the explosion and fire on the bridge.

Bastrykin said he had opened a criminal case into an “act of terrorism” adding: “We have already established the route of the truck,” which he said included transit through Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia, Krasnodar (a region in southern Russia) and other places.

Putin is expected to convene his national security council on Monday to discuss the blast that hit the strategically and symbolically important Kerch bridge linking Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland.

Some believe the meeting is an ominous indication that Moscow may be planning to escalate the conflict with Ukraine – after a chorus of public demands from hardliners for retaliation.

It also comes in the context of Russia’s growing nuclear brinkmanship around the nine-month-old war.

Kremlin-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Sunday:

The situation is manageable – it’s unpleasant, but not fatal … Of course, emotions have been triggered and there is a healthy desire to seek revenge.”

At least 14 people have been confirmed dead after Russian shelling in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine’s south-east on the weekend.

The latest death toll follows repeated attacks on the city in recent days and brings the total number of those killed in the past week to 43 people, according to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Russian missile strikes on Zaporizhzhia “have killed at least 43 people since October 3 this week alone”, Zelenskiy said in his Sunday night address.

Images of the aftermath shared by Ukraine’s emergency services showed a nine-storey building burning and partially collapsed as rescue workers sought to retrieve the dead and wounded.

The regional governor, Oleksandr Starukh, warned there may be more people under the rubble as Zelenskiy said debris was still being cleared. “More than 70 people were injured, including 11 children.”

“As a result of a missile attack in the centre of Zaporizhzhia, a multi-storey residential building was destroyed again,” Starukh said on Telegram. “There are injured.”

The city council secretary, Anatoliy Kurtev, said rockets struck the city, and at least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings had been damaged.

Russian forces reportedly struck the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, in what appears to be latest in a string of attacks on the southeastern city over the past week.

Regional governor Oleksandr Starukh reported the news via his official Telegram account around 3am on Monday, saying a rocket attack in the city centre destroyed a multi-story residential building.

Zaporizhzhia administrative head Anatoly Kurtev added that Russian forces “again hit the residential infrastructure of the city” in a separate Telegram post.

The attack caused a fire to break out as authorities work to clarify the number of victims, the officials said.

The attack follows Saturday’s devastating hit on the city which saw a nine-storey building burn and partially collapse as rescue workers are believed to still be attempting to retrieve the dead and wounded trapped under the rubble.

At least 14 people were confirmed dead with “more than 70 people injured, including 11 children” Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday.

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments for the next few hours.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is due to convene his national security council later today following Saturday’s explosion that partially destroyed the Kerch Bridge, built specifically on Putin’s orders and linking Crimea to Russia. Ukraine has not directly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Another overnight strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has claimed more casualties, its regional governor has said.

• Vladimir Putin has called the blast on the Crimea-Russia bridge an “act of terror” and blamed Ukraine directly for the attack. The Russian president accused “Ukrainian secret services” of carrying out the explosion at the Kerch Bridge, a vital link between Russian-occupied Crimea and the Russian mainland. “There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure,” Putin said in a video released on Sunday night. “This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services.” Ukraine has not directly claimed responsibility for the attack, which Russia said was carried out by a truck bomb.

• Russian divers are to examine the extent of the damage caused by the blast on the road and rail bridge. Crimea’s Russian governor, Sergei Aksyonov, told reporters that residents would manage despite the damage to the bridge. “Of course, emotions have been triggered and there is a healthy desire to seek revenge,” he said.

• Putin will convene his national security council on Monday to discuss the Kerch Bridge blast, according to the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov. The meeting comes amid growing expectations that the Kremlin plans an imminent and harsh escalation of its war.

• At least 14 people have been confirmed dead after Russian shelling in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine’s south-east early on Sunday. Images showed a nine-storey building burning and partially collapsed as rescue workers sought to retrieve the dead and wounded. The Ukrainian regional governor, Oleksandr Starukh, warned there may be more people under the rubble as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said debris was still being cleared. “More than 70 people were injured, including 11 children,” he said in his Sunday evening address.

• A power line that was cut by shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been restored, according to the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

• Authorities have exhumed the first 20 bodies from makeshift graves in the recently liberated city of Lyman in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s national police said on Sunday.

• Air force general Sergei Surovikin has been named as the overall commander of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry announced. The change is Moscow’s third senior military appointment in a week and follows the reported sackings of the commanders of two of Russia’s five military regions, as its forces have suffered a series of dramatic reverses in north-eastern and southern Ukraine.

• The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the US president, Joe Biden, said the Kremlin’s latest nuclear threats were “irresponsible” and its partial mobilisation “a serious mistake” during a phone call on Sunday. The call was focused on preparations for the G7 and G20 meetings that will address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the consequences, the German government said.

• The US military’s top spokesperson has tamped down concerns of an imminent nuclear threat from Russia, days after Joe Biden warned of a potential nuclear “Armageddon”. “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” the president said at a Democratic fundraiser last week. On ABC News’ This Week, the Pentagon’s John Kirby said Biden’s comments “were not based on new or fresh intelligence or new indications that Mr Putin has made a decision to use nuclear weapons”.

• The world’s biggest oil-producing nations cutting production at a time of soaring energy costs is “unhelpful and unwise” for global economic growth, the US Treasury secretary has said, amid intense pressure from sky-high inflation. Ahead of meetings hosted by the International Monetary Fund in Washington this week, Janet Yellen said the move by the Opec+ oil production cartel led by Saudi Arabia risked undermining the world economy.