hurricane over the caribbean. we re live at the scene and with the forecast. we begin in ukraine where, for the second time within days, the city of zaporizhzhia is taking a deadly pounding from russian rockets. these are scenes of chaos after multiple rockets slammed into residential areas on saturday, reportedly killing at least 17 people. while further south, moscow is scrambling to get the bridge linking the occupied crimea with russia back up and running. a part of the bridge collapsed after a huge explosion and fire on saturday. now russia says repair work will be under way around the clock. some train and road traffic has already resumed, but drivers will go into the water divers, rather, will go into the water later today to see if the structure can still support trucks. scott mclean is keeping an eye on developments in ukraine including the deadly strike on zaporizhzhia. he joins us from london, scott? reporter: yeah, we don t have a ton of information about th
i think, as i said, it places increased pressure on russian ground lines of communication, the logistical network. and the russians will be desperate to try and defend that. because if they can t defend that network, then their ability to hold their positions in ukraine just come apart at the seams. so it gives the ukrainians, i think, added opportunity to press home the advantage, eidner the donbas or in the south around kherson, ultimately toward crimea. it sets up an end game where the ukrainians eject russia from the area, eventually donbas and donetsk. russia appointed a new general to lead the war against ukraine. does this solve russia s problems on the battlefield? no. essentially, another new general doesn t do anything. i think russia s problems are essentially unsolvable because what they have is their forces
ukrainians take kherson. how might this have happened? look, i think, you know i ve seen the videos of supposedly the truck coming up onto the bridge and then the massive explosion. i m not convinced it was a truck bomb. for starters, i don t believe the ukrainians do suicide attacks. secondly, the truck looks too small to generate a blast of that size. there s some discussion within the strategic policy community on social media that it could have been some sort of explosion coming from underneath, perhaps from some sort of vessel in the water. but even that is uncertain. so it could be sabotage, it could be special forces. really hard to say how it happened. what does the blast on this crimean bridge do for ukraine and its momentum? i think it really does provide a huge boost for the ukrainian morale, which is already very good after a series of advances around the donbas area and also customer season.
strategic policy institute and he joins us from canberra. thank you for your time. how is this explosion affecting russian operations in the area? thanks, laila. look, i think what you re going to see is great pressure on the russian logistics network, essentially by attacking this bridge, they have certainly reduced the ability of the russians to supply crimea. and they ve also demonstrated essentially that the bridge is vulnerable, particularly as the ukrainian forces advance around kherson, they can bring in systems such as himars to attack the bridge again, potentially collapse the thing entirely. the russians i think will be likely to move forces from the donbas to the south to try and protect that bridge and protect the supply lines around mariupol. because if they lose those two ground lines of communication, then the ability of the russians to defend the whole crimea comes into question. that really would be the ultimate prize after the
and surrender. john: they are trying to create so much terror, general, and feeling among the population this has to end somehow. tell me what s going on here in the south now. we have seen russian forces come up through here, take kherson, came up and grabbed the nuclear plant, and over here in mariupol, the amount of bombardment on that city has been merciless for the people there. they are trying to much into mykolaiv, and ultimately odesa on this side. what this is about, they are trying to cut the ukrainians off from the sea. 70% of their imports and exports are dependent on access to the black sea and the sea of azov. the units involved here are better trained, a lot of