Moscow has replaced the commander of its offensive, appointing General Sergey Surovikin at the head of the operation, as kyiv continues its counter-offensive. Traffic resumed on the Crimean Bridge for cars and buses on the bridge’s only road lane that remained intact. Here is the update on the night.
Report of Thursday’s bombardment in Zaporizhia: 17 dead
The Ukrainian emergency service reported on Saturday evening, October 8, that seventeen people, including a child and a victim who died in hospital, died following the bombardment of the city of Zaporizhia Thursday, October 6. Twenty-one people were rescued, twelve of whom were hospitalized.
Seven missiles hit Zaporizhia on Thursday, three of which hit the city center. A building was almost completely blown up.
Destruction of the Crimean bridge: Volodymyr Zelensky is ironic
On Saturday October 8, the Crimean Bridge was partially destroyed by a huge explosion attributed by Moscow to a truck bomb.
In his daily evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made no statement regarding the explosion, but joked regarding the annexed peninsula. “Today was a beautiful day, very sunny […]. It was around 20 degrees and the sun was shining in much of the territory. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy in Crimea. Although it is also warm there”.
“We guarantee the life of all Russian servicemen who voluntarily lay down their arms and surrender”he added.
For his part, the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, may have seemed, by an ironic tweet in the morning, to recognize in half-words a Ukrainian attack.
Later in the followingnoon, he changed his mind, returning to a “Russian track”arguing that the explosion was the result of an internal struggle between the FSB (Russian special services) and the Russian military.
The attack would have caused three deaths according to the investigators: the driver as well as two people who were in a car nearby.
Crimean authorities announced in the followingnoon that traffic had resumed for cars and buses on the bridge’s only road lane that remained intact.
Decline in GDP in Ukraine
Ukraine records a fall in its GDP estimated at 30% over the first three quarters of the year, published the ukrainian economy ministry.
The country’s economy is suffering greatly from the effects of the war with Russia, with its GDP shrinking by 35% expected for 2022, estimated the World Bank on Tuesday. This devastating effect is expected to last due to “of the destruction of industrial capacity, damage to agricultural land and the decline of the workforce as more than 14 million people have been displaced”specifies the BM in a press release.
The Bayeux Prize rewards war correspondents in Ukraine
The 2022 Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents was awarded on Saturday 8 October to reports dealing with most of Ukraine. In photo, Evgeniy Maloletka of Associated Press (AP) is rewarded for his multimedia report with Mstyslav Chernov (Video image prize) on the fall of Mariupol, the public prize also goes to an AP photoreporter, Vadim Ghirda.
