a bit targeted environmentalists in danger starts october 29th on d. w. ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin. russia's bridge to crimea in flames, and explosion halls, traffic across only the road and rail link to the illegally annex peninsula. russia says it's a truck, bomb, and advisor to the ukranian president, calls it the beginning, but claims stopped short of claiming responsibility. meanwhile,

ukraine continues to push back russian forces bonds. departing troops leave behind another a grim reminder of their occupation. ukrainians discover hundreds of bodies in the eastern town of lemon. ah, a marion evans dean. thanks for joining me. we begin with breaking news. the bridge connecting crimea to russia has been hit by a large explosion. ukrainian media reported a blast early in the morning. local time, russian authorities say they're investigating a truck bomb. the blast is purportedly shown here in an unverified social media video on the roadway span of the bridge, igniting several fuel tanks on the railroad span, brush and events. let him hear putin opened the bridge in 2018 after russia

illegally annex the ukrainian peninsula. further, on verified videos also appear to show that a section of the bridge has collapsed due to the explosion. d. w is no longer able to report from russia because authorities withdrew our accreditation. so our correspondent killian buyer is following the russian reaction to the incident in crimea, from brooklyn, in lithuania, hello to you, kilian. so what are you hearing from russian authorities about this incident? well, like you said, the national anti terrorist committee said it was a car bomb. now fingers have been quickly pointed at ukraine, the head of the crimea and parliament vladimir constantine off was a quick to say that it was indeed an ukrainians who ukrainian vandals,

who had gotten their bloody hands on the crimean bridge. he went on to say that the ukrainians had not managed to build any thing in the last 23 years. and now that the ukraine is part of russia, they are trying to destroy every thing that russia has built. but he went on to say that m v bridge was not fully destroyed and would be quickly fixed. now, according to the kremlin spokesperson, dmitri pitts. cough putin as being a getting reports from the prime minister, the minister of transportation and the minister of emergencies. and is being briefed about the situation for president vladimir putin is launching a committee, a committee at which will investigate the source of, of, of, of the bombing. we'll look into the bombing. he's also being briefed by an different security services like the fs be, which will be on board in this investigation. so we are hearing harsh that sounds

from, from, from russia, but predictable at this, at the sandpoint. nothing that would be overly surprising. now, killian, what about the residence of crimea, in particular, the pro ration population there? what does this attack mean for then? well, i would say this attack is quite disconcerting for russians on crimea. we need to remember that crimea, you know, during the big beginning stage of the, of the war. and even though it was a staging ground for the invasion, crimea was fairly safe. you know, people living there did not really see much of the war in the beginning. and then a few months ago, it started with a tax on military infrastructure in crimea, a like the, the russian air base which was allegedly hit by, by drones, by ukrainian drones. we saw in the following that

a bit of panic and people leaving crimea over this bridge. now the bridges destroyed are not functional. and even though russian authorities are saying they're implementing a ferry service, it will be nowhere near the capabilities that this bridge had of getting people off . so, you know, people are kind of cut off and this is what this bridge symbolized in 2018 when putin opened this bridge. in a grand ceremony with them, orange trucks were putin, was driving a truck over the bridge. it symbolized the homecoming of crimea to the motherland. now that ty, that umbilical cord you could say, has been severed. and the only connection really, it will be through fairies or over the newly illegal illegally annex territories of russia, which are war torn. and so i would say people on crimea probably quite worried about the situation. well, killing,

of course rushes neighbors are also very worried about. and developments are in this war. i'm including in lithuania, which is where you are right now. and germany's defense minister, christina lambaste, is there to day to inaugurate and new headquarters of in german combat brigade. in lithuania, why is this so significant? well, i'm actually, like you said in rook law, this is the base where german and lithuanian soldiers are station. and this day is important because it symbolizes that, you know, germany is at russia, at lithuania, side, germany is here to support them. you know, there have already been 1600 soldiers stationed here in lithuania and german led combat unit, a drummond battle group. now an additional brigade of 2500 soldiers as coming the lithuanians had been calling for an additional combat brigade. all of the baltic

states have been calling for more troops. and after the evasion of ukraine by russia. germany, as has responded by saying we are at your side, we're sending more soldiers. we've allocated these 2500 troops here. so you know, whatever happens, we will be here with you. but there is a catch dw killian buyer reporting for us from brooklyn. sweeney. thank you so much, gillian. well, a short time ago, i spoke to mike martin, who is a war studies fellow at kings college in london. and i asked him, who he believed was behind the explosion on the bridge in crimea. will, isn't it almost certainly an attack by the economy forces i'm, it's it, the bridge is out of the artillery range of the, of the missile systems that ukraine has. so it's not that, and so that leaves us some sorts of special forces or sabotage raids. their anybody

to options for that one is the truck bomb that the russians seem to be talking about. the other is, is something on a boat to do that much damage. you need to move significant amounts of explosive into position. so those are your 2 options, really, but it was absolutely done by the 20 armed forces. and why do you think an attack like this was not stopped by russian air defenses or some other method of pro probe preventing an attack of this scale and that very significant bridge. but you could, you could also same question about any number of ukrainian attacks recently. oh, what we've seen over the last 34 months is that the ukrainians have consistently out thought the russians and they've out fought them as well. and so i think most

people expected the current bridge to come under attack. ah, but perhaps later on in the war hops when the ukrainians have made more advance in the south or perhaps re taken some surgeon dumbass. but actually what the credit is very good at is keeping everybody guessing. and so they've clearly decided as both symbolic and logistical advantage to dropping the bridge now. and so they've dropped it. the russian simply wants expecting it. then tell us a bit more about this strategic significance and also the symbolic significance. i mean, how much of a detriment is it going to be to russia's military effort, having this bridge damaged and what is it due to russian morale, great question. i'm so the russian military relies on railways for a lot of it supplies various historical reasons for that. but it's, it's very important fact. now, if we look at the russians in crimea, and in her song we've had a lot about recently,

there are only 2 rail links that moved from russia into that area. and one is on the catch bridge that we've just seen destroyed. and the other one runs just north of meet all which is that city i'm in the saw on in the south, on the, on the coast of the black sea. and about 2 days ago the cranium started attacking the front lines are only about such gums as a white sauce attacking with artillery the russian railway lines there in a pe school talk mac, now they've dropped the bridge. so the ukrainians, clearly isolating the russian forces from their supplies in terms of symbolism, did the digests of russian t v. tonight, they're going to be absolutely fascinating. this bridge has putin's name all over it. it's the symbolism of his project. and this comes at a time where there's already been lots of factions, maneuvering in moscow, blaming the military, blaming the vote degree, blaming putin. the blame game started and such

a symbolic attack by the ukrainians is only going to accelerate that. now you mentioned how important this bridge is for vladimir putin personally. and i know he is threatened in the past that if the bridge would be targeted by ukrainian forces, then key of would then be the a direct target in retaliation. so are we likely to see a direct attack on kia now by russian forces? it, but keith has been, it's all good throughout the war. it was under direct ground. so for the 1st 6 weeks of the war and has been on the intermittent air in missile attack, since then over the last month, we'll say we've seen the instruction of russian suicide drones in cities like odessa. i don't see how it's acting. this bridge is going to change the russian attacks on places like keys and anyway,

the way we should view attacks on civilians on cities is of russian impotence. in military terms, attacking civilians is a illegal and b doesn't help you new military effort. you should be attacking your opponents military forces. so i don't think this is going to have a great effect on what we're gonna do. it's, it's another empty threat from putin. there was mike martin worse than his fellow at king's college in london. mike, thank you so much for all of your in science. thank. let me, ma ukrainian authorities say they found 200 individual graves and a mass grave in the eastern ukrainian city of lee mon. the military governor of the janeth region has published photos of the graves on his telegram channel. the pictures which have yet to be verified show emergency personnel wearing white protective suits in a court and off area. the governor says exclamations have already begun. officials have not yet confirmed the bodies are of civilians or ukrainian soldiers. russia

retreated from the area last weekend. ukraine says it's recaptured, thousands of square kilometers and is counter offensive against russia. bonte, moscow's forces are still launching assaults of their own. the city of bar moot, and the eastern dynette grecian has come under intense russian fire residence there are trying to flee to safety, but getting out is far from easy blown up to hinder. the advancing russians now back moved, residence a force to make a difficult journey across. what's left of this bridge, some like this pensioner on her way home need help from their neighbors. it's a little easier for the able bodied, but no less dangerous. as explosions ring out and not fall away. flores, ne, the main problem is the sound you can hear now a lower level. and everything else is secondary. traditional is good if it's

quiet wilcher. but to get supplies to the cutoff eastern bank, this simply no alternative could afford him or both. sometimes they fiery to close it next to that story. just above our heads up in milan and the shrapnel sprays everywhere mixed with does. but we keep on carrying water, how can we leave wear to whom with much of the city already in ruins. and russian forces saying they've now captured villages to the south volunteers a helping to get back mutes most vulnerable residence out while they can. yeah, so us, yeah. oh, the vast majority of the towns roughly 72000 pre war inhabitants have already fled off to weeks of shelling. as russia steadily advances back mutes ukrainian defenders still face

a difficult battle ahead. you're watching the w news. a quick reminder of our top story and explosion has struck the only branch linking russia to the crimean peninsula. on verify the images on social media show a large blast on a section of the character bridge. brush authorities say they're investigating what they're calling a truck bomb. that's the latest on the w news, the marion evanston. i'll be back with more headlines for you at the top of the hour for me and the news team. thanks for watching. how did she become at off hitler's favorite director and how did he become a forgotten, sil pioneer, leniently finished and arnold funk a dog.