Putin calls Russian Security Council meeting for Monday: Reports

Tomorrow the president has a planned meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council, news agency AFP reported quoting Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

 It will come two days after the key Crimea-Russia bridge was damaged in a blast in what was seen as a significant security failure for Russia.

The council is composed of top state officials and the heads of Russia’s defense and security agencies, charged with coordinating national security matters.

Meanwhile, a dozen Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings and other targets in Zaporizhzhia killed at least 12 civilians and injured dozens more. The southeastern city, about 50 kilometers from the namesake nuclear power plant, has been under escalating attacks but Sunday’s strikes were the deadliest so far. Ukrainian officials stepped up their calls for air missile defense systems from Western allies.

In its latest shakeup, Russia’s defense ministry named General Sergey Surovikin as commander of all its troops fighting in Ukraine, a week after Moscow’s forces withdrew from a key Donetsk town and faced losses on the southern front, and as the military prepares to integrate some 300,000 new conscripts.

The 19-kilometer Kerch Strait Bridge between annexed Crimea and the Russian mainland was damaged Saturday in a blast that caused the partial collapse of the roadway. Russia said Sunday that passenger and freight trains are moving on the span again. Limited car and truck traffic has also resumed.