Ukraine scandales, hits second bridge on Russia's territory

Ukrainian Air Force Chief Lt. Mykola Oleschuk published a video of a Ukrainian air strike on Friday that damaged the bridge. Less than two days later Ukrainian troops hit a second bridge in Russia, according to Mr. Oleshchuk and Russian regional governor Alexei Smirnov.

So far there have been no official reports of exactly where the bridge's second attack occurred. Russian sources on the Telegram app said a second bridge over Seim was hit in the village of Zvannoe. According to the Russian news site Mass, only one functional bridge now remains in the Kursk area.

The Associated Press could not immediately verify these claims, but if confirmed, this means that Ukrainian attacks will further complicate Moscow's efforts to renew its forces in Kursk and evacuate civilians.

Kiev has not said what his goals are with the attack on Kursk, Russia's largest since World War II, which caught the Kremlin by surprise. Ukrainian forces went deep into the Kursk region in several ways, facing little resistance and causing chaos and panic.

Bridge strikes appear to be aimed at preventing a Russian counterattack in Kursk, and this could mean that Kiev intends to have a presence in the region or at least signal Moscow that it plans to do so.

Analysts say that although Ukraine could try to consolidate its advances within Russia, this would be a dangerous maneuver in view of Kiev's limited resources, because the lines for the deep supply of the Korsk would be exposed to Russian attacks.

The encouragement has increased Ukraine's morale, which was weakened by a failed counteroffensive last summer and Russian forces' advances in the eastern region of Donbas.

President Voldymyr Zelensky has urged Kiev allies to remove the remaining restrictions on use of Western weapons to strike deeper targets in Russia, including in Kursk, saying that his troops can paralyse Moscow “from the ability to advance and cause destruction to” if given enough long-range weapons of action.

It is essential that our partners remove obstacles that prevent us from weakening Russian positions. The bravery of our soldiers and the sustainability of our combat brigades compensate for the lack of basic decisions by our partners”, Mr. Zelensky said in a post on the social platform X.

Russia's Foreign Ministry and pro-Cremlin bloggers have claimed that US-made HIMARS missiles have been used to destroy bridges in Seim. These claims have not been independently verified. / VOA