Republic of Crimea

Moscow on Saturday suspended its participation in a landmark agreement that allowed vital grain exports from Ukraine, blaming drone attacks on Russian ships in Crimea.

Russia made the announcement after its army accused Kiev earlier Saturday of a "massive" drone attack on its Black Sea fleet, which Ukraine labelled a "false pretext" and the UN urged the deal's preservation.

The White House said Thursday that Iranian troops are "directly engaged on the ground" in Crimea supporting Russian drone attacks on Ukraine's power stations and other key infrastructure, claiming it has troubling evidence of Tehran's deepening role assisting Russia as it exacts suffering on Ukrainian civilians just as the cold weather sets in.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Moscow blamed Ukraine's military intelligence for the Crimean bridge explosion

"The organizer of the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge is the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and its leader Kyrylo Budanov," the FSB statement said.

"Russia's deliberate attacks on the entire territory of Ukraine and against civilians are a profound change in the nature of this war," Macron said yesterday during a visit to Mayen, in northwestern France.
The Elyse Palace confirmed that a meeting was held with military and diplomatic advisers.

A spokesman for the European Commission said today that there could be no credence in claims by Russian investigative services that the truck that allegedly blew up on Saturday on the Kerch (Crimea) bridge had left Bulgaria and passed through Georgia, Armenia and North Ossetia before arriving in the Krasnodar region (Russia).

Deputy Head of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, said that Moscow must respond to the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge.
As he said, Russia will respond by eliminating the terrorists responsible for the attack.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

The Crimean bridge burst into flames, a part collapsed into the sea. Putin convenes a government commission on the incident

Although in March it voted for the United Nations General Assembly resolution demanding an end to Russian aggression, Turkey did not join the Western sanctions.
At the same time, however, it blocked the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles for the passage of Russian and other military ships into the Black Sea.

Russian authorities reported shooting down Ukrainian drones Saturday in Crimea, while Ukrainian officials said Russian forces pressed ahead with efforts to seize one of the few cities in eastern Ukraine not already under their control. The Russian military also kept up its strikes in Ukraine's north and south.