Kiev, August 21 (HS). The Ukrainian army has destroyed all three bridges built on the Seim River in western Russia. Russian sources gave this information. Ukraine's invasion in western Russia entered its third week on Tuesday. The Ukrainian army has captured 1,250 square kilometers of Russian territory and 92 settlements in Kursk.
Kiev's offensive in Russia's Kursk region is changing the course of the war and boosting the morale of Ukraine's war-weary population. However, it is not yet possible to predict the final outcome of this offensive. This is the first attack on Russia since World War II.
While Ukraine celebrates its success in Russian territory, Russia is moving to capture Pokrovsk, another major center in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine's attack on three bridges across the Seym River at Kursk could trap Russian forces between the river, the Ukrainian front lines, and the Ukrainian border. Russia's counter-response to the Kursk offensive launched by Ukraine on August 6 appears to be slowing down.
Over the weekend, Ukraine's air force commander posted two videos of attacks on bridges over the Seym River. Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by The Associated Press on Tuesday confirmed that a bridge in the town of Glushkovo had been destroyed.
A Russian military investigator confirmed on Monday that Ukraine had “completely destroyed” one bridge and damaged two others in the region. The extent of the damage remains unclear.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukrainian forces have captured 1,250 square kilometres of territory and 92 settlements since the start of the incursion into the Kursk region.
In recent days, Zelensky has said the operation is aimed at creating a “buffer zone” to deter future cross-border attacks on his country, and that Ukraine is holding large numbers of Russian prisoners of war and hopes to exchange them for captured Ukrainian citizens.
Russian state news agency TASS, citing an unnamed source in the Russian medical service, reported that 17 people were killed and 140 injured in the Ukrainian incursion. Four of the 75 people hospitalized were children.