Explosions caused 2 bridges in western Russia to collapse, officials say. Seven people were killed
Explosions caused two bridges to collapse and derailed two trains in western Russia overnight, officials said Sunday, without saying what had caused the blasts. In one of the incidents, seven people were killed and dozens were injured.
The first bridge, in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, collapsed on top of a passenger train on Saturday, causing the casualties.
Hours later, officials said a second train was derailed when the bridge beneath it collapsed in the nearby Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine.
In that collapse, a freight train was thrown off its rails onto the road below as the explosion collapsed the bridge, local acting Gov. Alexander Khinshtein said Sunday. The crash sparked a fire, but there were no casualties, he said.
Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top criminal investigation agency, said in a statement that explosions had caused the two bridges to collapse, but did not give further details.
Photos posted by government agencies from the scene in the Bryansk region appeared to show train carriages ripped apart and lying amid fallen concrete from the collapsed bridge. Other footage on social media were apparently taken from inside vehicles on the road that had managed to avoid driving onto the bridge before it collapsed.
In the past, some officials have accused pro-Ukrainian saboteurs of attacking Russia's railway infrastructure. The details surrounding such incidents, however, are limited and cannot be independently verified.
In a statement Sunday, Ukraine's military intelligence, known by the Ukrainian abbreviation GUR, said a Russian military freight train carrying food and fuel had been blown up on its way to Crimea. It did not claim the attack was carried out by GUR or mention the bridge collapses. The statement said Moscow's key 'artery' with the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region and Crimea has been destroyed.'
Russia forces have been pushing into the region of Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine since Moscow's invasion in February 2022. They took Crimea and annexed it in 2014.
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Washington Post
10 minutes ago
- Washington Post
‘A psychological victory': 3 writers discuss Ukraine's drone strikes
You're reading the Prompt 2025 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. On Sunday, Ukraine launched surprise drone strikes that targeted strategic bombers parked deep inside Russian territory. Ukrainian officials claimed the strikes damaged or destroyed dozens of planes. This development feels like a game changer, but how exactly? I sat down with two of my colleagues, Max Boot and Jim Geraghty, to discuss if Ukraine's sneak attack on Russia could change the outlook of the war. — Damir Marusic, assignment editor 💬 💬 💬 Damir Marusic Do you think the strikes change things, practically, on the battlefield? What lessons, if any, do you think Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken away from them? Max Boot It probably won't be a big change on the battlefield but it will certainly hamper Russia's ability to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities. This is not a game changer but it's a significant operational and psychological victory for Ukraine. I doubt the message will get through but it should help convince Putin he is not going to win this war. Jim Geraghty I'm sure any alleviation of Russia's ability to launch cruise missiles at Ukraine will be welcomed, but I agree with Max, this is primarily a psychological and symbolic blow to Putin and the Russians. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Jim On my second trip to Ukraine, I spoke with Akhmed Zakayev, the prime minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the Chechen government in exile; Chechens are fighting against the Russians in Ukraine. He told me, 'Russians like to fight wars on other people's territory. They hate to fight wars on Russian territory.' Putin won't feel any pressure to cut a deal until the elites in Moscow and St. Petersburg feel the consequences of the war. Strikes deep in Siberia send a strong signal that no spot in Russia is safe from Ukrainian retaliatory strikes. Damir Ukrainians have long argued that hitting Russia hard does not lead to further escalation — that the support of the West is enough of a deterrent. Do you expect Russia to escalate after this, or will it just be more of the same grind? Max Short of nuclear weapons (which I don't expect) there is not much Putin can do that he hasn't already done. Russian hard-liners keep demanding carpet bombing of Ukrainian cities. The reason Putin isn't doing that is not because he's a closet humanitarian: It's because Ukrainian air defenses are too strong. Of course, the Kremlin will claim some big air attack on Kyiv as 'revenge' but they've been mounting air attacks since the start of the war. It's not like Putin would be going easy if the Ukrainians weren't hitting back. Jim Agreed. One of the many problems of fighting a war with maximum brutality is there's not much room to escalate in response to the enemy's actions. Damir The Ukrainians had been planning this strike for more than 18 months, and the United States knew nothing about it. Max, you mentioned there was a message for Putin there. Was there a message for the United States, and specifically the Trump administration, here as well? Jim That this was the finest operational secrecy since the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers. Max 😂 Max I think the message is that the Ukrainians don't trust the United States. They have scar tissue from all of the overly restrictive limitations imposed by the Biden administration on the use of U.S. weapons, so they are using drones not only because they are so effective but also because they are made in Ukraine. Of course, the level of mistrust between Kyiv and Washington has gone up exponentially since President Donald Trump came to office. The Ukrainians know they are dealing with an American president who has a soft spot in his heart for the war criminals in the Kremlin. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Jim Hey, if Trump wants to get back into the inner circle of Ukraine's operations, I'm sure Kyiv would loop him in on the memos in exchange for some more Patriot missiles. Damir Max, you wrote a terrific piece over the weekend about what these strikes mean for the future of warfare — that the era of the drone is upon us. Zooming out, what do you guys think this means for the defense of Taiwan, for example? Max This attack confirms the lesson we've been learning for more than three years in Ukraine: Drones are the future of warfare. In the war's early days, more than 70 percent of the casualties were being inflicted by artillery. Now 70 percent are being inflicted by drones. This is a lesson that every nation in the world, including Taiwan, needs to take onboard. Taiwan needs to crank up drone production to make it too difficult for China to invade. The U.S. also needs to crank up production. As I noted in a recent column, the U.S. can only manufacture about 100,000 drones a year. Ukraine made 2.2 million last year and is aiming to make 4.5 million this year. We've fallen behind in the drone revolution. Jim Like Max, my first reaction was 'Wow, this is an amazing accomplishment for the Ukrainians. The Russians must feel like a Ukrainian drone could hit them anytime, anywhere.' My second reaction was, 'Whoa, wait a minute, how secure are our air bases from an attack like this?' My guess is: not particularly protected. Although, when I visited Kyiv earlier this year, a lot of European allies were in town, looking for drone warfare lessons and suppliers from the Ukrainians … Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Damir Jim, regarding our own security, that's exactly what popped into my mind. Remember those stories about Chinese entities buying up land near our military installations? At the time, I assumed it was about espionage, but since this weekend, I wonder if there might be other reasons. Max Counterdrone warfare has to become an urgent priority for every military in the world. The Ukrainian attack revealed the vulnerability of airfields (and other installations) all over the world to similar sneak attacks. It used to be that you needed to build long-range missiles to have long-range strike capacity. No longer. Now you can achieve the same result with ultracheap drones that can be reconfigured to carry explosives in a ramshackle workshop; terrorist groups could easily manufacture them. If we aren't worried, we aren't paying attention. Damir And it's not just military airfields, right? Civilian defense has to be in the mix — power stations, airports, data centers … Jim Okay, I wondered if this was a silly thing to bring up, but in the 2013 … er, cinematic classic featuring Gerard Butler, 'Olympus Has Fallen,' the North Koreans launch a devastating attack on the White House using machine guns hidden in garbage trucks. It seemed cheesy and implausible at the time, but the scenes at those Russian airfields must have felt like that — ordinary trucks opening up and unleashing an arsenal upon unsuspecting targets nearby. Every military and spy agency around the world is looking at the Ukrainian operation and asking, 'If they can pull that off, why can't we?' Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Damir Final question: Do you think that efforts such as Trump's Golden Dome missile defense project are now less of a priority? Should there be a pivot? Jim The threat from ballistic missiles isn't mythical, but I think there will be a lot of fair questions about why we would spend so much on large missile defense and not take action to defend against smaller, lighter, cheaper drones. Max I've long thought that Golden Dome was a monumental boondoggle that will not achieve its objective of space-based missile defenses. We should be spending that money on drones and drone defenses. That is the real future of warfare.
CNN
13 minutes ago
- CNN
Putin didn't budge in Ukraine peace talks. Now Donald Trump may be forced to act
So, Russia and Ukraine are still as far apart as ever, with the two warring countries unable to make a significant breakthrough in direct talks in Istanbul. While there was agreement to exchange more prisoners, Moscow and Kyiv remain deeply divided over how to bring the costly and bitter Ukraine war to an end. Russia has shown itself to be particularly uncompromising, handing Ukrainian negotiators a memorandum re-stating its maximalist, hardline terms which would essentially amount to a Ukrainian surrender. Expectations were always low for a Kremlin compromise. But Moscow appears to have eliminated any hint of a readiness to soften its demands. The Russian memorandum again calls on Ukraine to withdraw from four partially occupied regions that Russia has annexed but not captured: a territorial concession that Kyiv has repeatedly rejected. It says Ukraine must accept strict limits on its armed forces, never join a military alliance, host foreign troops or aquire nuclear weapons. It would be Ukrainian demilitarization in its most hardline form, unpalatable to Ukraine and much of Europe, which sees the country as a barrier against further Russian expansion. Other Russian demands include the restoration of full diplomatic and economic ties, specifically that no reparations will be demanded by either side and that all Western sanctions on Russia be lifted. It is a Kremlin wish-list that, while familiar, speaks volumes about how Moscow continues to imagine the future of Ukraine as a subjugated state in the thrall of Russia, with no significant military of its own nor real independence. This uncompromising position comes despite two important factors which may have given the Kremlin pause. Firstly, Ukraine has developed the technical capability to strike deep inside Russia, despite its staggering disparity of territory and resources. The stunning drone strikes recently targeting Russian strategic bombers at bases thousands of miles from Ukraine is a powerful illustration of that. Ukraine, it seems, has some cards after all, and is using them effectively. Secondly – and arguably more dangerously for Moscow – the Kremlin's latest hardline demands come despite US President Donald Trump's increasing frustrations with his own Ukraine peace efforts. Trump has already expressed annoyance with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, who he said had gone 'absolutely MAD' after massive Russian strikes on Ukraine last week. Video obtained by CNN appears to show Russian combat planes burning on the tarmac following a large scale Ukrainian drone attack. CNN cannot independently verify the location of the videos but a source in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said the drone strikes targeted four airbases deep inside Russia. But now, Trump himself is under pressure as a cornerstone of his second term foreign policy – bringing a rapid end the Ukraine war – looks decidedly shaky. There are powerful levers to pull if Trump chooses, like increasing US military aid or imposing tough new sanctions, such as those overwhelmingly supported in the US Senate. One of the key backers of a cross-party senate bill that aims to impose 'crippling' new measures on Moscow, Senator Richard Blumenthal, accused Russia of 'mocking peace efforts' at the Istanbul talks and in a carefully worded post on X accused the Kremlin of 'playing Trump and America for fools.' It is unclear at the moment how the mercurial US president will react, or what – if anything – he will do. But the outcome of the Ukraine war, specifically the brokering of peace deal to end it, has become inextricably linked with the current administration in the White House. The fact that Putin has once again dug in his heels and presented an uncompromising response to calls for peace, may now force Trump to act.
The Verge
21 minutes ago
- The Verge
Ukraine's drone strike isn't just an attack — it's first-person warfare
Ukraine launched a surprise attack on Russia that targeted more than 40 of the country's military aircraft on Sunday. The mission, called Operation Spiderweb, involved sending 117 drones over Russia's borders and into several of its airfields. It was the Ukrainian military's longest-ranged attack yet, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but it also pulls back the curtain on an elaborate campaign to put raw footage of the strike in front of a global audience. Within just hours, three videos of the strike spread from Ukraine's federal security agency to a journalist based in the country, later spilling into social media and news outlets worldwide. The videos appear to be filmed from the perspective of a drone, complete with an overlay of information about the drone's telemetry. In one video, the drone flies over an airfield, passing clouds of dark gray smoke billowing from multiple warplanes. Another clip apparently captures the moment a plane explodes into a tower of flames. The third shows a drone descending toward an aircraft, with the video suddenly freezing and displaying the message 'Warning no data' upon reaching the plane. The Ukrainian government would later report that 41 Russian aircraft were destroyed as a result of the strike, making up 34 percent of Russia's strategic cruise-missile carriers, according to The New York Times. The strikes targeted multiple airfields across Russia. On top of the damage to Russian forces, the dissemination of the videos was a clear goal of the mission. This isn't the first time Ukraine has shared raw footage of its attacks to shine a spotlight on the war, but it's perhaps one of the most stunning and fast-spreading examples so far. The video clips apparently came from sources inside Ukraine's national security agency, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). Ukrainian journalist Vitaly Glagola seemed to be one of the first to share them, writing in a post on Telegram (machine-translated by The Verge) that he had obtained footage of the drone strike from sources inside the SSU. Glagola later followed up with several images, including one showing several drones lined up in preparation for the attack. The New York Times reposted the clips with Glagola's watermarks, while other outlets, like The Associated Press and the BBC, wrote that they obtained copies from sources within the SSU. Meanwhile, the videos spread quickly on social media, with users reposting and sharing them across X, Bluesky, and Reddit. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukraine has kept the entire world updated through social media. Early on, Zelenskyy went viral for posting selfie videos of himself in Ukraine's capital city Kyiv following Russia's attacks. Those efforts escalated as the war progressed, with both Zelenskyy and Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi amassing large followings on X, where they both frequently share information about the country's war efforts. The country's campaign has also helped Ukraine raise millions and even recruit a global 'IT Army' to help defend the country against cyberattacks. Ukraine has maintained support in Europe, but it's facing pressure from President Donald Trump to end the war — including during a hostile meeting with Zelenskyy that Trump deemed 'great television.' A first-person view of a fiery strike on Russia, though, is far more eye-catching.
