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2024 Planet Labs Inc./Handout via REUTERS A satellite image shows a bridge collapsed over the Seym river in the Glushkovo district, following a Ukrainian strike in the Kursk region, Russia, August 17, 2024.
Reuters
13:57 JST, August 19, 2024
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian air forces destroyed another strategic bridge over the Seym River in Russia’s Kursk region, limiting the supply capacity of a Russian group opposing the Ukrainian advance, Ukraine’s commander said on Sunday.
Kyiv said it had seized more than 80 settlements over 1,150 square km (444 square miles) in Kursk since launching a surprise strike across the border on Aug. 6, the biggest invasion of Russia since World War Two.
“Kursk direction. Minus one more bridge! Ukrainian Air Force aviation continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precision airstrikes, which significantly affects the course of hostilities,” Mykola Oleshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app.
He posted a video showing a growing cloud from an explosion on a bridge and one of its sections destroyed. Reuters could not independently confirm the destruction of the bridge or the situation on the battlefield in Kursk.
Reuters was able to confirm the location of the bridge in Oleshchuk’s video as in the village of Zvannoye in the Kursk region. Reuters was not able to independently verify the date when the video was filmed.
There was no immediate response from Moscow officials to Ukraine’s reports. Some Russian military bloggers, including the prominent War Gonzo project, reported that there was a Ukraine’s attack on Sunday on the bridge in Zvannoye.
A Russian military blogger close to the defense ministry who goes by the name “Rybar” said on the Telegram messaging app that the bridge was heavily damaged, but did not collapse and can be used by pedestrians and – in some cases – light vehicles.
The bridge was the second attacked by Ukraine since Friday.
Earlier, military analysts said there were three bridges in the area of the Ukrainian army’s offensive through which Russia supplies its forces and that two of them have been either destroyed or seriously damaged.
Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said that the situation on the battlefield in Kursk was “relatively calm,” on Sunday with Ukrainian forces regrouping.
He added that Ukraine is likely to try to take control in the coming days of another strategic bridge, over the Psyol River – key for further advancement of Kyiv forces or for holding defense.
Zelenskiy on Sunday thanked the Ukrainian forces involved in the Kursk operation and on the eastern front and asked the country’s allies to speed up the delivery of promised military aid.
“Our operation in the Kursk region is still inflicting losses on the Russian army and the Russian state, their defense industry and their economy,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an evening television address.
“Regarding deliveries from our partners – need acceleration, we ask very much. War has no holidays,” Zelenskiy said.
Russia has called the Ukrainian incursion a major provocation and vowed to retaliate with a “worthy response,” more than 2-1/2 years since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
