Moscow says destruction of bridge in western Russia will obstruct the evacuation of civilians amid Ukrainian incursion.Russia has accused Ukraine of the usage of Western rockets – most likely made in the US – to focus on a strategic bridge over the Seym River within the Kursk area, killing volunteers seeking to evacuate civilians.
Ukrainian forces hit the bridge within the Glushkovsky district of Kursk on Friday as they driven ahead with their incursion into the territory in western Russia.
“For the primary time, the Kursk area used to be hit via Western-made rocket launchers, most probably American HIMARS,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of International Affairs, mentioned past due on Friday at the Telegram messaging app.
“On account of the assault at the bridge … it used to be totally destroyed, and volunteers who have been aiding the evacuated civilian inhabitants have been killed.”
Russia’s information company TASS launched the names of 2 volunteers it mentioned have been “murdered” within the assault.
Russian officers even have mentioned the destruction of the bridge will obstruct the evacuation of civilians from the world.
Launched pictures of the destruction of the bridge, August 16 [Handout/Ukrainian Defence Ministry Press Office via AP Photo]
Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk comes simply months after the United States and several other of its NATO allies mentioned in Would possibly that they’d authorized Kyiv to make use of their guns to assault goals within Russia.
Al Jazeera’s Defence Editor Alex Gatopoulos mentioned Friday’s bridge bombing will make it tricky for Russian forces to shield the world in opposition to Ukrainian advances and get admission to provides.
“Russian devices there [are] stuck between a river and a difficult position – now not very many puts for them to move at the present time,” he mentioned.
“Now, there’s going to be a subject matter for the Russians as a result of if they are able to’t provide those devices with the ammunition that they want – and the gas – then those devices will probably be pressured to retreat over the river.”
The Ukrainian army, which has been struggling with a Russian invasion since February 2022, introduced the Kursk offensive previous this month – a marketing campaign that has been described as the primary incursion via a international military into Russia since Global Conflict II.
On Thursday, Ukraine mentioned it captured the Russian the town of Sudzha, a strategic herbal fuel hub within the Kursk area.
Kyiv claims it has taken keep watch over of 82 settlements in Russia over a space of one,150sq km (440sq miles) since August 6.
Ukrainian officers have mentioned the rustic does now not goal to carry directly to Russian territory. On Thursday, a Ukrainian presidential adviser mentioned the Kursk incursion will also be “used to persuade the Russian Federation to go into into an even negotiation procedure”.
Marina Miron, an army analyst at King’s Faculty London, instructed Al Jazeera that politically, Ukraine is hoping to make use of its Kursk operation “as a bargaining chip” in negotiations with Russia.
“It is crucial [that] Ukraine is pronouncing they don’t seem to be going to occupy that land,” mentioned Miron.
She famous that the incursion – and the usage of Western apparatus on Russian oil – “has brought about some issues even supposing it used to be authorised that Ukraine is doing this operation to shield itself”.
Kyiv additionally is making an attempt to “relieve drive” from the Donbas area via drawing Russian troops into Kursk, Miron added.
That “doesn’t appear to be operating as of but, however it’s transparent that the Ukrainian forces are seeking to entrench themselves in that area”, she mentioned.
For its phase, Moscow has insisted that it’s succeeding in repelling the Ukrainian offensive and causing heavy losses on Kyiv’s forces.
On Saturday, TASS reported – bringing up the Russia’s Ministry of Defence – that Russian forces shot down 10 HIMARS rockets and 35 Ukrainian drones, and killed 420 “enemy servicemen” previously 24 hours.
Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari highlighted that each side are liberating contradictory accounts of what’s going down.
“In fact, it’s very tricky to independently check what is occurring at the flooring,” Jabbari mentioned. “We’re getting other variations of what’s going down from the Ukrainian aspect in addition to the counter-narrative popping out of the Russian Defence Ministry.”
