Ukrainian forces have destroyed or damaged all three bridges over the Seyn River in western Russia, Russian sources said as Kyiv's offensive entered its third week on Tuesday (20/8).
Kyiv's offensive into Russia's Kursk region changed the course of the war and boosted morale among Ukraine's war-weary population, although the final outcome of the offensive – the first against Russia since World War II – remains unpredictable.
While Ukraine is touting its successes on Russian territory, Russia's push into eastern Ukraine looks set to take another key city, Pokrovsk.
Ukraine's attack on three bridges over the Seyn River in Kursk appears to have slowed Russia's retaliatory response to the Kursk offensive, which Ukraine launched on August 6.
Over the weekend, the Ukrainian Air Force commander posted two videos of the bridge over Seyn being attacked. Satellite photos by Planet Labs PBC were analyzed Tuesday by the news agency Associated Press confirmed that a bridge in the city of Glushkovo had been destroyed.
A Russian military investigator confirmed Monday that Ukraine had destroyed one bridge and damaged two others in the area. It was not immediately clear how extensive the damage was.
“As a result of targeted shelling with rockets and artillery weapons of residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in the village of Karyzh … the third bridge over the Seyn River was damaged,” an unnamed representative of Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a video on the Telegram account of Russian state television host Vladimir Solovyov.
Since the offensive on the Kursk region began, the Ukrainian military has captured an area of 1,263 square kilometers – up from 1,000 square kilometers a week earlier – and 93 settlements, Ukraine's top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrsky, said., on Tuesday, while meeting with local officials.
After meeting with Syrsky on Tuesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that the Ukrainian military had achieved “the set targets” in Kursk.
Zelenskyy has said in recent days that the offensive was intended to create a buffer zone that could prevent future attacks on his country from across the border, and that Ukraine was capturing a large number of Russian prisoners of war that it hoped could be exchanged for Ukrainians captured by Russia.
Russian government news agency TASS reported that 17 people were killed and 140 others were injured in the Ukrainian attack, citing an unnamed source in the Russian medical service. Of the 75 people hospitalized, four were children. (uh/ns)
