Like every Friday, "20 Minutes" looks back on the key elements of the war in Ukraine and the major turning points of the week in infographics.
The Crimean Bridge, which connects the peninsula to Russian territory, was damaged by a strong explosion on Saturday morning.
Moscow accuses kyiv of being responsible for it, and has launched an air counter-offensive with a lot of drones.
The war of nerves with the West also continues on the energy level.
Moscow has thus complained of not taking part in the investigation into the leaks from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, and another leak this time affected an oil pipeline in Poland.
Nearly a week after the explosion of the Crimean bridge, the intensity of the conflict has gone up a notch again, between bombardments, nuclear threat and progress on both sides.
For if the Ukrainian forces continue to grab territory in the south, approaching Kherson village by village, Russia has also won some positions in the east.
And embarked on an “air counter-offensive”, multiplying the bombardments on the back of the front with Iranian drones.
At the same time, the tone rose on the diplomatic scene.
Moscow accuses kyiv of having committed a “terrorist act” on the Crimean bridge, and Vladimir Putin “says that he is not bluffing with the nuclear threat”, notes Josep Borrell.
This prompted the head of European diplomacy to warn that “any nuclear attack against Ukraine will lead to a response so powerful that the Russian army will be annihilated”.
Like every Friday,
20 Minutes
comes back to you on the week in four infographics.
The Crimean Bridge damaged by an explosion
“Today at 5:07 a.m. on the road part of the Crimean bridge (…) a car bomb exploded, which caused the fire of seven railway tanks that went to Crimea.
» It is with this declaration of the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee that our live Ukraine of Saturday October 8 started.
Part of the road deck has collapsed into the Kerch Strait, which the bridge spans, and the railway bridge is also badly damaged.
Three people died in the explosion, Russian authorities report.
An investigation was immediately opened, and the Kremlin accused the “Ukrainian secret services”, castigating the “terrorist nature of the kyiv regime”.
On the contrary, Ukrainian officials were ironic about this explosion and pointed to a "Russian track".
The Crimean Bridge is particularly symbolic for Moscow, which launched its construction in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea to connect it by land to the rest of Russia.
Vladimir Putin ordered the repairs to be completed no later than July 1, 2023.
Moscow bombs major Ukrainian cities
The response to the explosion on the Crimean bridge did not take long.
On Monday, Russia launched an air counter-offensive, stepping up strikes on towns in the rear.
It then continued, on a lesser scale, by concentrating on military, energy and communication infrastructures.
The toll of these strikes rose to 19 dead and 105 injured on Tuesday, including some in kyiv.
In the capital, civilian sites were hit, including a university and a playground. These strikes constitute a "war crime", French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna denounced on her Twitter account on Monday.
Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown, Kryvyi Rih, was also heavily targeted by the Russian military.
Russian army and Iranian drones
These strikes on the cities in the north of the country, or near the Polish border, Russia did not carry out from the front in Kherson.
According to the Ukrainian army, "the enemy used Iranian drones of the Shahed-136 type from the territory of Belarus and temporarily occupied Crimea" to strike kyiv or Lviv.
“Suicide” drone attacks, inexpensive to build and ideal for targeting a fixed target such as a hospital or an apartment building.
This is not the only device that the Tehran regime supplies to Moscow.
The Mohajer-6 is also among hundreds of drones delivered this summer, according to the White House.
By allying with the Islamic Republic, Russia is circumventing Western sanctions and ensuring the supply of its army, while the country's production lines are not keeping pace.
It is also a way of bringing into play the competition between two countries which are fighting over the sphere of influence in the Middle East and the South of the Caucasus: the Mohajer-6 is indeed considered the equivalent of the Bayraktar TB-2, supplied by Turkey to Ukraine.
However, Erdogan and Putin met at the end of the week on the occasion of a summit in Azerbaijan, and wish to strengthen economic ties between their countries.
In particular by creating a "gas hub", in order to
Druzhba pipeline also leaks, Germany stores gas
Europe's energy independence is more than ever on the menu.
The investigation into the leaks from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, off the Danish island of Bornholm, is progressing slowly, hampered by the presence of munitions and sunken ships on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Russia has officially complained of not being invited to the investigation, conducted by the German, Swedish and Danish services.
For Vladimir Putin, it is an “act of international terrorism”, which benefits the United States, Poland and Ukraine.
Another leak was also spotted on Tuesday evening, this time on the Druzhba pipeline, which transports oil from Russia to Germany via Poland.
While an uncertain winter in terms of energy is coming, Berlin has made use of its contacts to fill its tanks: its gas reserves are 95% full, in particular thanks to imports from France.
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