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Ukraine is blowing up bridges to consolidate its positions in Russia’s border region of Kursk, while the Kremlin struggles to muster the forces needed to push them back.
Ukrainian Armed Forces Chief Mykola Oleshchuk posted two videos over the weekend of air strikes that destroyed two bridges over the Seym River near the towns of Glushkovo and Zvannoye, which analysts say will disrupt Russian military logistics and allow Ukraine to consolidate its positions.
“The Air Force continues to deprive the enemy of its logistical capabilities with precise air strikes, which significantly affects the course of hostilities,” Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram in a post that included footage of the blown-up bridges. He added that the strikes also targeted Russian weapons depots, logistics hubs and supply lines.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday it was engaged in fighting with Ukrainian forces in four villages about 40 km northwest of the Ukrainian-controlled town of Sudzha and near Cherkasskoe Porechnoe, about 15 km north of Sudzha.
The Ukrainian side has imposed a media blackout on the operation and is not reporting the action in real time on the battlefield. It has, however, claimed control over Sudzha, where it has set up a military office and has floated the possibility of opening humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians.
While President Vladimir Putin has promised an “appropriate response” to the bold Ukrainian operation, his forces have so far failed to repel Kiev’s forces. Moscow, however, has launched additional air strikes against Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday they had repelled a Russian missile and drone attack on Kiev, as well as the Sumy region from which the Kursk offensive was launched on August 6. The Russian strike also targeted the Poltava region between Kiev and Kharkiv, near the Russian border, but the Ukrainian air force said it intercepted the missiles.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Russia used 40 drones, 750 aerial bombs and 200 drones against Ukraine in the past week.
A senior Ukrainian security official told the Financial Times that the operation had caused panic among the top Russian security leadership. The Russian National Guard, the FSB and the Russian Defense Ministry were “competing and not coordinating with each other,” the official said.
Ukrainian troops were in a “very good position,” the official said, as they could not be surrounded and were holding short flanks to make defense easier. Kiev’s media blackout had managed to keep Russian troops in the dark about the true number of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, the official added.
Kiev has insisted that it does not intend to keep the 1,150 square kilometers of territory it conquered in the Kursk region, but will only use it as a bargaining chip in potential future negotiations.
“Ukraine is not interested in occupying Russian territories,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Friday night. He described the operation as a “military tool… to persuade the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process.”
