Vladimir Putin will assemble his security team after the Crimean bridge is destroyed and the army withdraws.

The Security Council, which brings together representatives of the Russian president, key ministers and political leaders, as well as the security services and military, will be held on Monday, October 10, the Kremlin announced, without providing an agenda. If Vladimir Putin continues to hold such meetings, it will take place in a particularly complicated military environment for Russian officials.

Partial destruction of the Kerch bridgeThe annexation of Crimea, a region occupied since 2014, by Russia is a severe blow both structurally and symbolically. Russian officials blamed the explosion, which killed three, on a truck bomb. Moscow did not immediately blame Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials did not officially claim responsibility. Without this vital infrastructure, built at great expense on Putin’s orders, a critical supply route for military equipment is disrupted.

On the military front, the withdrawal of the Russian military in several regions will undoubtedly be noted by members of the Security Council. The Ukrainian army’s counteroffensive, launched several weeks ago, drove the Russians out of several key cities, such as Izium and Lymanand continues around the Kharkiv region in the north, now fully under Ukrainian control, and around Kherson in the south. As mentioned in the special magazine International Security and DefenseUkraine’s military has made progress in the past two weeks “Very real (…)More than Russia since mid-June”.

Ukraine has attacked several bridges in the Kherson region in recent months, disrupting Russian supplies, as well as military bases in Crimea — attacks it has not claimed responsibility for months after. The Russian military assured Saturday that its troop supplies were not threatened in Kherson, a city that has been occupied since the start of the invasion and is vital to maintaining a land corridor on the Sea of ​​Azov.

Accumulated military setbacks forced the Kremlin to change the army’s high command: General Sergei Churovikhin was appointed to head it. “Special Military Operation” In Ukraine. The name of his predecessor has not been officially released, but according to Russian media, General Alexander Dvornikov, a veteran of the second Chechen war and commander of Russian forces in Syria from 2015 to 2016.