Russia

MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/: The Kiev regime’s attack on the Crimean Bridge will not be left unanswered, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Monday.

"Naturally, Russia’s response will follow. The defense ministry is working on relevant proposals," he said at a government meeting on the situation around the Crimean Bridge.

MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/: Russia is expecting the international community to make an appropriate assessment of the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, which is a purely civilian facility. We expect that the international community and specialized multilateral structures will be principled and render a proper assessment of this latest crime perpetrated by the Ukrainian authorities," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/: Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, on Monday urged his country to use force, as well as targeted and "far from humane" measures against terrorists in the wake of the latest attack on the Crimean Bridge.

"The global track record and our own experience show that there is no using international sanctions, or issuing warnings against terrorists. They understand only the language of force. Only targeted and quite inhumane steps [should be taken]," Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel.

July 17 (Reuters) - Powerful solar flare activity is forecast for Monday which may interfere with short-wave communications, Russian scientists said after three flares were observed on the sun on Sunday.

The Fedorov Institute of Applied Geophysics in Moscow said class X flares were possible, including proton flares, and short-wave radio conditions were expected to deteriorate.

X-class flares are the largest explosions in the solar systems and can create long-lasting radiation storms. Proton flares are a storm of solar energetic particles, composed chiefly of proton.

An attack before dawn Monday damaged part of a bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea that is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, forcing the span’s temporary closure for a second time in less than a year. Two people were killed and their daughter was injured.

Vehicle traffic on the Kerch Bridge came to a standstill, while rail traffic across the 19-kilometer (12-mile) span also was halted for about six hours.

The strike was carried out by two Ukrainian maritime drones, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said.

More mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner military contractor rolled into Belarus Monday, a monitoring group said, continuing their relocation to the ex-Soviet nation following last month’s short-lived mutiny.

Belaruski Hajun, a Belarusian activist group that monitors troops movements in Belarus, said that a convoy of about 20 vehicles carrying Russian flags and Wagner insignia entered the country Monday heading toward a field camp that Belarusian authorities had offered to the company.

The group said it was a third Wagner convoy entering the country since last week.

MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the Ukrainian army has had no success since the start of its counteroffensive.

"All the enemy's attempts to break through our defense - which is a task including the use of strategic reserves - they have not succeeded since the offensive began. The enemy has no success!" the president said in an interview for the program "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin", a fragment of which was posted on the Telegram channel of host Pavel Zarubin.

MOSCOW, July 16./TASS/: Russian air defenses have intercepted three HIMARS rockets, two S-200 missiles and downed 13 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a briefing on Sunday.

"Air defense systems intercepted three HIMARS MRLS rockets and two S-200 surface-to-air missiles reequipped into attack weapons to hit ground targets in the past 24 hours," he said.

MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/: Moscow resolutely condemns Kiev’s plans to use terrorist methods against Russian nuclear power plants that may cause a large-scale nuclear disaster in Europe, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.

The Russian diplomat issued this statement in the wake of a Ukrainian drone attack on the town of Kurchatov where the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is located.

MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/: The African leaders on a Ukraine peace mission will have an opportunity to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the upcoming Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg in late July, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Saturday.