Moscow says wreck of bridge in western Russia will impede the evacuation of civilians amid Ukrainian incursion.
Russia has accused Ukraine of the usage of Western rockets – most likely made in the USA – to focus on a strategic bridge over the Seym River within the Kursk pocket, killing volunteers looking to evacuate civilians.
Ukrainian forces strike the bridge within the Glushkovsky district of Kursk on Friday as they driven ahead with their incursion into the dimension in western Russia.
“For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, probably American HIMARS,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Overseas Affairs, stated past due on Friday at the Telegram messaging app.
“As a result of the attack on the bridge … it was completely destroyed, and volunteers who were assisting the evacuated civilian population were killed.”
Russia’s information company TASS spared the names of 2 volunteers it stated have been “murdered” within the assault.
Russian officers even have stated the wreck of the bridge will impede the evacuation of civilians from the section.
Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk comes simply months nearest the USA and several other of its NATO allies stated in Would possibly that that they had permitted Kyiv to significance their guns to assault objectives within Russia.
Al Jazeera’s Defence Scribbler Alex Gatopoulos stated Friday’s bridge bombing will build it tough for Russian forces to cover the section towards Ukrainian advances and get right of entry to provides.
“Russian units there [are] caught between a river and a hard place – not very many places for them to go at the moment,” he stated.
“Now, there’s going to be an issue for the Russians because if they can’t supply these units with the ammunition that they need – and the fuel – then these units will be forced to retreat over the river.”
The Ukrainian army, which has been fighting a Russian invasion since February 2022, introduced the Kursk offensive previous this day – a marketing campaign that has been described as the primary incursion via a overseas military into Russia since International Conflict II.
On Thursday, Ukraine stated it captured the Russian the city of Sudzha, a strategic herbal gasoline hub within the Kursk pocket.
Kyiv claims it has taken regulate of 82 settlements in Russia over an section of one,150sq km (440sq miles) since August 6.
Ukrainian officers have stated the rustic does now not effort to keep directly to Russian dimension. On Thursday, a Ukrainian presidential aider stated the Kursk incursion can also be “used to convince the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process”.
Marina Miron, an army analyst at King’s School of London, advised Al Jazeera that politically, Ukraine is hoping to significance its Kursk operation “as a bargaining chip” in negotiations with Russia.
“It is important [that] Ukraine is saying they are not going to occupy that land,” stated Miron, noting that the incursion – and the significance of Western apparatus on Russian oil – “has caused some concerns even if it was accepted that Ukraine is doing this operation to defend itself”.
Kyiv additionally is making an attempt to “relieve pressure” from the Donbas pocket via drawing Russian troops into Kursk, Miron stated.
That “doesn’t seem to be working as of yet, but it is clear that the Ukrainian forces are trying to entrench themselves in that region”, she added.
For its phase, Moscow has insisted that it’s succeeding in repelling the Ukrainian offensive and causing fat losses on Kyiv’s forces.
On Saturday, TASS reported – mentioning the Russia’s Ministry of Defence – that Russian forces shot i’m sick 10 HIMARS rockets and 35 Ukrainian drones, and killed 420 “enemy servicemen” within the year 24 hours.
Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari highlighted that each side are liberating contradictory accounts of what’s going down.
“Of course, it’s very difficult to independently verify what is happening on the ground,” Jabbari stated. “We are getting different versions of what is happening from the Ukrainian side as well as the counter-narrative coming out of the Russian Defence Ministry.”