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A stunning series of photos and videos shows the violent impact of the explosion that tore through Russia’s prized Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea early Saturday morning. A monstrous fireball bloomed over all four of the bridge’s vehicle lanes at 6:07 a.m. as a passenger car and a freight truck drove side by side up the incline to its towering arch. The flames appeared to reach across the water, enveloping the twin railroad bridge about 100 feet away.

The picture was posted via Twitter by Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the investigative branch of the National Security Service in the Kharkiv region. ‘Defense of Ukraine‘, the official Twitter of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, wrote in a Tweet: “A torture chamber in Pisky-Radkivsky. Two photos. A gas mask placed on the head of a victim who was covered with a smoldering rag and buried alive. And a box of gold dental crowns. A mini-Auschwitz.” Here’s the original Tweet by Serhiy Bolvinov with some additional objects found onsite:

It started with Gazprom revealing that the Line B string of NS2 is intact; not only it escaped Pipeline Terror but may “potentially” be used to pump gas to Germany. That confirms once again that NS2 is an engineering marvel. In fact the whole system: the pipes are so strong they were not broken, but merely punctured. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak followed up, with a caveat: restoration of the whole system, including NS, is possible, and “requires time and appropriate funds”. But first, in Russia’s order of priorities, the perpetrators must be conclusively identified. Sources in Moscow confirmed...

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said deliberate disruption would meet the "strongest possible response". The EU has previously accused Russia of using gas supplies as a weapon against the West over its support for Ukraine. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed accusations of sabotage as "predictable, stupid and absurd The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he thought the leaks would "not have a significant impact on Europe's energy resilience". Neither pipeline is transporting gas at the moment, although they both contain gas. Mr Blinken did not directly accuse Russia - but said it would be in...

Thank you USA BTW, there's no shortage of pipeline capacity for taking gas from Russia to Western Europe, including Germany. Nordstream's only logic was for Putin to be able to blackmail or wage war on Eastern Europe with impunity. All Ukrainian and Baltic sea states have opposed Nordstream's construction for 20 years. Now $20 billion of scrap metal lies at the bottom of the sea, another cost to Russia of its criminal decision to invade Ukraine. Someone, @MFA_Russia, did a special maintenance operation.

HAS ANYONE HEARD THIS REPORT? PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: “PUTIN LEFT MOSCOW TO HIS SECRET PALACE NEAR LAKE VALDI BETWEEN MOSCOW & ST PETERBURG WHEN RUSSIA & RUSSIA’S ADMINISTTATION WAS IN SUCH A MESS! LEAVING HIS COUNTRY WITHOUT A LEADER WHHILE HIS COUNTRY WAS ON FIRE & CITIZENS WERE WAITING FOR A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS. PRO-PUTIN POLITICAL OFFICIALS STATED THAT THE RUSSIAN LEADER WENT TO THE LUXURY COMPLEX TO REST HIS BODY AND SOUL.”

Russian-installed officials in occupied regions of Ukraine reported huge majorities on Tuesday in favour of becoming part of Russia after five days of voting in so-called referendums that Kyiv and the West denounced as a sham. Hastily arranged votes had taken place in four areas - the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and to the south Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - that make up about 15% of Ukrainian territory. Luhansk authorities said 98.4% of people there had voted to join Russia. In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian-appointed official put the figure at 93.1%. In Kherson, the head of the voting committee put...

Did Putin’s frogmen blow up Europe’s gas supplies? Western leaders blame ‘deliberate’ sabotage after Nordsteam pipe from Russia ruptured off Sweden causing 3000ft-wide bubbles and sending prices spiking Three leaks reported in Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines near Danish island last night and this morning Pipelines are leaking gas into the Baltic Sea, with one area more than 3,000ft wide churning with bubbles Danish PM Mette Frederiksen has said her government believes the leaks were caused by 'deliberate actions' Ukraine also pointed the finger at Moscow, describing the incident as a 'terrorist attack and act of aggression' Latvian Defence...

"Soldiers of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ambushed the enemy in a forest massif in Donetsk region." The video shows Ukrainian soldiers running through the forest during a counteroffensive in a separatist region of Ukraine that has been a key battleground for both sides since Russia's invasion on February 24. Over the weekend, nearly 370 civilians were evacuated from the area, according to the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. "After the ambush, the operators of the SSO of Ukraine began to perform other tasks without losses," the General Staff of the...

Tuesday is the final day of voting in a series of referendums on joining Russia. The votes, widely seen as rigged and illegitimate, are likely to pave the way for Russia to announce it has annexed more of Ukraine by the end of the week, analysts say. The votes have been taking place in two pro-Russian, self-proclaimed “republics” in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and southern occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. There have been multiple reports of votes being staged and coercion and aggression being used to force people living in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to vote...

An ally of President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday outlined the scenario of a nuclear strike on Ukraine, saying that the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would be too scared of a 'nuclear apocalypse' to directly enter the conflict in response. Dmitry Medvedev, a former president who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said Russia had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons if it is pushed beyond its limits and that this is "certainly not a bluff". Putin last week ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine,...

Russia has admitted it made mistakes in its drive to call up of hundreds of thousands of military reservists. Reports have been circulating on social media of people with no military experience being called up - as well as others who are too old, or disabled. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has now conceded errors were being made, saying there were cases when the mobilisation decree had been "violated". It comes as people in Russia continue to protest against Vladimir Putin's plan to mobilise 300,000 military reservists. Reports in opposition Russian media suggested that up to one million people could be...

MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. Kiev will not receive any "security guarantees", in particular, because its draft is essentially a "prologue" to World War III, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev believes. "The Kiev camarilla has given birth to a project of 'security guarantees', which are essentially a prologue to a third world war. Of course, no one will provide any 'guarantees' to the Ukrainian Nazis," he wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. He believes that the agreement proposed by Kiev is tantamount to "applying Article 5 of the North Atlantic Pact to Ukraine." This article refers...

The news of municipal deputies from Russian districts signing a petition demanding Putin resigns was shared by Ksenia Torstrem, a member of the St. Petersburg municipality Semenovsky, who published the statement on Twitter. She urged other municipal deputies to join the statement. “We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President V. V. Putin are detrimental to the future of Russia and its citizens.” “We demand Vladimir Putin’s resignation as President of the Russian Federation!” reads the text of the petition, signed by about 20 deputies.

Ukrainian forces to the east and southeast of Kharkiv retain the offensive initiative. Russian forces are withdrawing from the strategic hub of Izium and regrouping along a straight north-south line running just east from Kupiansk down to Izium. In the South, company-level fighting continues northeast of Kherson; neither side has made any significant gains since early last week. In response to the Kharkiv region offensive, Russian air and missile forces have attacked energy and water infrastructure throughout Eastern Ukraine and caused massive blackouts in major cities. On the basis of reported large-scale US intelligence and added advanced weapons systems assistance,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refused peace talks with Russia just days prior to the war, according to reports.Zelensky's adamant refusal to accept German-brokered peace talks with Russia, which ultimately resulted in large-scale killings and massive destruction in Ukraine, has earned him brickbats from people across the globe.As per the report published in the Wall Street Journal, it is evident that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had extended an offer for peace days before Russia launched the attack on Ukraine but the Ukrainian President did not pay any heed.

Very excellent analysisUkrainians have painted themselves into a corner from which they can no longer use the tactic of falling back from one defensive line after another and have to attack Russians for political reasons. That is allowing Russians to use tried/true Mongol tactics of retreating and luring them into traps.. In fact this latest episode is much closer to the Russian border and will allow Russian airpower to very quickly eliminate any Ukrainian tanks or other vehicles so that it will be just foot soldiers walking into cauldrons of destruction. The Biden family and other US politicians being up...

Vladimir Putin's shaky legs have made another appearance as he appeared ill at ease while giving a rambling speech in front of young Russians today. The leader, 69, has been at the centre of multiple health rumours in recent months and has regularly appeared twitching and unsteady while in public. Today, he flew across nine time zones towards Kamchatka, a glaciers-and-volcanoes peninsula in the Pacific, in the east of Russia. He repeatedly tapped both of his feet on the floor and held on to his armrest for support as he told the children: 'You have to live for something to...