Moscow orders Crimea bridge to be repaired by July 2023 ⁰

Russia indicated Friday repairs to the Crimea bridge could take months after an explosion on the key supply link that sparked a barrage of retaliatory missile strikes on Ukraine.

Nearly eight months into Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, Kyiv’s emboldened military was celebrating Defender’s Day while a UN envoy claimed Russia’s forces were using rape as a weapon.

Those celebrations come after pro-Kremlin authorities in the southern Kherson region pleaded with Moscow for help evacuating civilians in the face of an advancing Ukrainian counter-offensive.

At the same time, Russian-backed forces in the east have announced they are inching closer to the Ukraine-held down of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the explosion on the Crimea bridge last week as a terrorist act and in retaliation battered Ukraine for two days with missiles that hit energy facilities and caused blackouts and disruption to water supplies.

Source: France 24