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This photo taken on March 12, 2018 shows the Kremlin complex (back) and the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge across the Moskva River in Moscow.
Mladen Antonov | AFP | Getty Images
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Ukraine used Western rockets, possibly U.S.-made HIMARS, to destroy a bridge over the Seim River in the Kursk region, killing volunteers trying to evacuate civilians.
“For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by a Western-made rocket launcher, probably an American HIMARS,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said late on Friday on the Telegram messaging app.
“The bridge over the Seym River in the Glushkovo district was attacked and completely destroyed, and volunteers who were helping to evacuate civilians were killed.”
Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Sersky said Friday that Kiev’s troops had advanced 1 to 3 kilometers (0.6 to 1.9 miles) in parts of the Kursk region since they began their incursion into Russia 11 days ago.
This photo taken on August 16, 2024, during a media tour organized by Ukraine, shows a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin vandalized in the Ukrainian-controlled town of Sudja in the Kursk region during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On August 16, 2024, Kiev said its incursion into Russian territory had advanced, claiming that it aimed to force Russia to negotiate on “fair” terms, as Moscow’s troops announced new advances in eastern Ukraine.
Yan Dobronosov | AFP | Getty Images
Kiev claims to have taken control of 82 settlements covering 1,150 square kilometres (440 square miles) in the region since August 6. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield descriptions from either side.
Russia has accused the West of supporting and encouraging Ukraine’s first ground offensive on Russian territory and said Kiev’s “terrorist incursion” would not change the course of the war.
The United States, which has said it cannot let Russian President Vladimir Putin win the war he launched in February 2022, has so far viewed the surprise incursion as a protective move to justify the use of American weapons, Washington officials said.
Russia called the incursion a “major provocation” and vowed a “due response.” It has been more than two and a half years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Friday that its troops had repelled attacks by Ukrainian troops in several areas, including near the villages of Gordevka and Rusko-Polechnoye.
Zelensky praised Russia’s losses in the Kursk region as “very helpful” for Ukraine’s defense.
“This involves the destruction of Russian military logistics and the depletion of its reserves,” he said in an evening speech.
Ukrainian soldiers drive tanks on a road near the Russian border in the Sumy region of Ukraine on August 14, 2024. On August 6, Ukrainian troops entered Russia’s Kursk region and occupied dozens of settlements, the largest offensive launched by foreign troops on Russian territory since World War II.
Romain Pilippe | AFP | Getty Images
The Air Force commander in Kyiv, Mykola Oleshchuk, added on Telegram that the aviation forces took an active part in the operation, which targeted the enemy’s supply routes and logistical centers. He posted a video of the attack on the bridge.
Kursk Oblast Governor Alexey Smirnov said Ukraine destroyed a road bridge over the Seym River in the region’s Glushkovsky district.
Target in the East
However, the most intense fighting is taking place in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops have been slowly advancing towards the strategic center of Pokrovsk for months.
Analysts say one of the aims of Ukraine’s Kursk operation is to disperse Russian forces in the east, but so far there has been no sign of a let-up in the military campaign in eastern Ukraine.
According to local officials, Russian troops were 10 kilometers from the outskirts of Pokrovsk and about 6 kilometers from nearby Mirnorad.
“If the goal was to deflect the Russian offensive in the Donbass region, it has not been successful so far,” said John Michel, a French military expert and researcher at the IESD institute in Lyon.
He said Kiev’s goal was to maximize the effects of the Kursk Offensive, while Russia was trying to do the same in eastern Ukraine.
“Whoever blinks first is likely to stop their attack,” he said.
Zelensky said Ukraine had “not for a moment” forgotten the east and pledged to provide more new weapons than planned to strengthen eastern positions.
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