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Russia bans freight traffic on its territory by companies from “hostile countries”

Photo: EPA/BGNES

As of 10 October, Russia is halting all freight traffic on its territory, by companies registered in hostile countries. The ban affects carriers from the EU, the UK, Norway and Ukraine. Dimitar Dimitrov from the Chamber of Bulgarian Road Hauliers said, for the BNR, that drivers have been given 7 days to unload their cargo at listed logistical facilities. Only vehicles carrying freight from a special list, which the Russian side has deemed it needs, will be allowed inside Russia. According to Dimitrov, this sanction affects Bulgarian businesses and road hauliers, and benefits competitors from Serbia and Moldova.

Russia announced that car traffic has been restored in one lane, and rail traffic – fully along the partially destroyed Kerch bridge linking Crimea with Russia. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has most probably lost control over his special services. Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the President’s Office, said that the explosion that occurred at the Crimean Bridge on Oct. 8 is the result of a conflict between Russia's Security Service (FSB) and private military companies on one side, and Russia’s Defense Ministry and General Staff on the other, the Kyiv Independent writes.

Ukrainian troops are involved in very tough fighting near the strategically important eastern town of Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and which Russia is trying to take, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

On the night of 9 October, Russian aircraft shelled the city of Zaporizhzhia. At least 12 people were killed and 49 hospitalised, including 6 children, as a result of the shelling, the region’s governor said on Sunday, Reuters reports. A nine-storey building was partially destroyed overnight, five other residential buildings levelled and many more damaged in 12 Russian missile attacks, said Oleksandr Starukh, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region.

Germany has announced new weapons deliveries to Ukraine, CNN reports. The weapons package provided to Ukraine by Germany will include the IRIS-T air defense system and 100 tanks from Greece and Slovakia, Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has announced. In addition, Germany will create a new armored infantry brigade, which can be quickly transferred to Lithuania if necessary, she added. 



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