Moscow says the destruction of bridges in western Russia will hinder the evacuation of civilians throughout Ukraine’s invasion.
Russia has accused Ukraine of utilizing Western rockets, probably American-made, to focus on strategic bridges over the Sem River within the Kursk area, killing volunteers making an attempt to evacuate civilians.
Ukrainian troops crashed right into a bridge within the Glushkovsky district of Kursk on Friday as they superior into western Russian territory.
“For the primary time, the Kursk area was attacked by a Western-made rocket launcher, almost definitely the American HIMARS,” Russian International Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated on the Telegram messaging app on Friday evening.
“Because of the assault on the bridge… the bridge was fully destroyed and volunteers helping within the evacuation of civilians have been killed.”
Russian information company TASS printed the names of two volunteers, saying they have been “murdered” within the assault.
Russian officers additionally stated the destruction of the bridge would hinder the evacuation of civilians within the space.
Simply months earlier than Ukraine invaded Kursk, the USA and a number of other of its NATO allies stated in Could that they had approved Kiev to make use of weapons towards targets in Russia.
Al Jazeera protection editor Alex Gatopoulos stated Friday’s bridge bombing would make it troublesome for Russian forces to defend the area from a Ukrainian assault.
“There are Russian troops there [are] Caught between a river and a troublesome place – there aren’t many locations for them to go in the meanwhile,” he stated.
“Now the Russians are going to have an issue as a result of if they cannot present these troops with the ammunition and gas they want, then these troops shall be compelled to withdraw throughout the river.”
The Ukrainian navy has been combating a Russian invasion since February 2022, launching the Kursk offensive earlier this month in what has been billed as the primary invasion of Russia by overseas forces since World Battle II.
On Thursday, Ukraine stated it had captured the Russian city of Souza, a strategic fuel hub within the Kursk area.
Kiev claims to have taken management of 82 Russian settlements masking an space of 1,150 sq. kilometers (440 sq. miles) since August 6.
Ukrainian officers say the nation has no intention of holding on to Russian territory. On Thursday, an adviser to Ukraine’s president stated the Kursk invasion may “be used to influence the Russian Federation to enter a good negotiation course of”.
Moscow insists it’s efficiently repelling the Ukrainian offensive and inflicting heavy losses on Kiev’s forces.
On Saturday, the TASS information company quoted the Russian Protection Ministry as saying that Russian forces shot down 10 HIMARS rockets and 35 Ukrainian drones up to now 24 hours and killed 420 “enemy servicemen.”
Al Jazeera’s Dosa Jabari, reporting from Moscow, highlighted that either side gave conflicting accounts of what was occurring.
“In fact, it is rather troublesome to independently confirm what is occurring on the bottom,” Jabari stated. “We’re getting totally different variations from the Ukrainian facet of what is going on on, in addition to counter-narratives from the Russian Protection Ministry.”
