attack had any effects on russia s strategic ability to move military equipment in and out of crimea? the short answer is i don t know. i can t we haven t let me put it another way. we haven t seen any impact of the strike on the bridge to russia s defensive posture and their military capabilities in crimea or in southern ukraine. i mean, they are still they are still fighting ukrainian forces, still trying to push back elements of the ukrainian counteroffensive. i think it s just too soon to know whether that attack on that bridge is going to have any specifically military impact on their ability to fight this war. and, yes, it provided land access, terrestrial access to crimea. but the russians have many, many, many other ways of
the group is stoking fears that they could play spoiler in president biden s re-election bid. we ll be speaking to the group s national director about those concerns. plus, search-and-rescue operations under way after flash flooding that s claimed the lives of at least five people in the northeast. other parts of the country sweltering under dangerous heat and the rest of the world is suffering too. we have much more on the extreme weather along with other major developing stories all coming in right here to cnn news central. we are learning new details this hour on the attack of a critical bridge linking russia to crimea. ukraine says the bridge was blown up by drones and you can see the aftermath here. the portion of the bridge appears to be heavily damaged. vladimir putin is claiming the two strikes were, quote, terrorist attacks.
bridge and he vowed retaliation on the parts of the russians to the military. they were working up certain scenarios for that. one of the things we have to keep in mind with that boris is that the last time the crimean bridge was hit was when the campaign was started against ukrainian cities. thank you so much. even though the attack on this bridge coincides with the russian ending of that grain deal, the kremlin says the two are unrelated, brianna. let s talk about this more now with cedric layton. this bridge, let s talk about the strategic military importance here. yeah, absolutely. when you look at this bridge, of course, this is one of the biggest engineering feats that the russians ever built. it s the only link, only bridge link between crimea and russia. it s also the major supply route for russian forces especially on
russian for blocking grain shipments from ukraine through the black sea. he noted that corn, soy and wheat prices have already gone up and he said that russia alone bears responsibility for the costs of this situation. he rejected this idea that there may be some kind of escort in order to help grain get out of the area and he also rejected the suggestion that this was a response to that bridge attack that we saw on the bridge spanning russia to crimea. he also talked about this meeting that we ve learned is going to happen between president biden and benjamin netanyahu of israel. he said they spoke to. he did not say if they re going to be meeting at the white house. he said those details are still being worked out. but this is probably going to be happening by the end of the year. and he also touched upon as he was asked about the chairwoman of the house progressive caucus saying that israel is a racist state, something that she has faced backlash for, that she s