Bridge collapse causes a train to derail in Russia, killing at least 7 people: officials
Russia's federal road transportation agency, Rosavtodor, said the destroyed bridge passed above the railway tracks where the train was traveling. Photos posted by government agencies from the scene appeared to show passenger cars from the train ripped apart and lying amid fallen concrete from the collapsed bridge.
Other footage on social media appeared to be taken from inside other vehicles that narrowly avoided driving onto the bridge before it collapsed. Bryansk regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said emergency services and government officials were working at the scene. He said seven people died and two children were among the 30 injured. "Everything is being done to provide all necessary assistance to the victims,' he said.
Russian officials have not said who or what was responsible for Saturday's incident, but 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. Ukrainian media outlets reported in December 2023 that Kyiv's top spy agency had successfully carried out two explosions on a railroad line in Siberia that serves as a key conduit for trade between Russia and China.
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Arab Times
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Kuwait Times
16 hours ago
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Putin may not want to make a deal on Ukraine, Trump says
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But the path to peace remains deeply uncertain and Zelensky may be forced to make painful compromises to end the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Analysts say more than 1 million people have been killed or wounded in the conflict. Russian attacks While the Washington talks allowed for a temporary sense of relief in Kyiv, there was no let-up in the fighting. Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, the largest this month. The energy ministry said Russia had targeted energy facilities in the central Poltava region, home to Ukraine's only oil refinery, causing big fires. However, Russia also returned the bodies of 1,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said. Moscow received 19 bodies of its own soldiers in return, according to the state-run TASS news agency. 'The good news (from Monday's summit) is that there was no blow-up. Trump didn't demand Ukrainian capitulation nor cut off support. The mood music was positive and the trans-Atlantic alliance lives on,' John Foreman, a former British defence attache to Kyiv and Moscow, told Reuters. 'On the downside, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the nature of security guarantees and what exactly the US has in mind.' Ukraine's allies held talks in the so-called 'Coalition of the Willing' format on Tuesday, discussing additional sanctions to crank up the pressure on Russia. The grouping has also agreed that planning teams will meet US counterparts in the coming days to advance plans for security guarantees for Ukraine. NATO military leaders were expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine, with US General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expected to attend the meeting virtually, officials told Reuters. 'We are now actively working at all levels on the specifics, on what the architecture of the guarantees will look like, with all members of the Coalition of the Willing, and very concretely with the United States,' Zelensky said on X. 'Tiptoeing around Trump' Russia has made no explicit commitment to a meeting between Putin and Zelensky. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow did not reject any formats for discussing peace in Ukraine but any meeting of national leaders 'must be prepared with utmost thoroughness'. Putin has said Russia will not tolerate troops from the NATO alliance in Ukraine. He has also shown no sign of backing down from demands for territory, including land not under Russia's military control, following his summit with Trump last Friday in Alaska. Neil Melvin, director, International Security at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said Russia could drag out the war while trying to deflect US pressure with a protracted peace negotiation. 'I think behind this there's a struggle going on between Ukraine and the Europeans on one side, and the Russians on the other, not to present themselves to Trump as the obstacle to his peace process,' Melvin said. 'They're all tiptoeing around Trump' to avoid any blame, he said, adding that on security guarantees, 'the problem is that what Trump has said is so vague it's very hard to take it seriously.' — Reuters
