Ukraine blows up bridges to strengthen its position in Russia

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Ukraine is blowing up bridges to shore up its positions in Russia’s Kursk border region as the Kremlin struggles to muster the forces needed to drive them back.

Ukrainian forces commander Mykola Oleshchuk released two videos over the weekend of airstrikes destroying two bridges across the Seim River near the towns of Glushkovo and Zhvanoe, which analysts say will hamper Russian military logistics and allow Ukraine to consolidate its positions.

“The Air Force continues to deprive the enemy of its logistical capabilities with precision airstrikes, which significantly affects the course of hostilities,” Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram in a post that included video footage of the bridges being blown up. He added that the strikes also targeted Russian arms depots, logistics centers and supply lines.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday it was fighting Ukrainian forces in four villages about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the Ukrainian-held city of Sudzha, as well as around Cherkaskoye Porechnoye, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of Sudzha.

The Ukrainian side imposed a media silence on the operation and did not provide real-time reports on the battlefield. However, it announced its control over Sudzha, where it set up a military office and raised the possibility of opening humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians.

Although President Vladimir Putin has vowed to respond “appropriately” to the bold Ukrainian operation, his forces have so far failed to repel Kyiv’s forces. Moscow has nonetheless launched more airstrikes on Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday they had repelled a Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv, as well as on the Sumy region from which the Kursk offensive was launched on Aug. 6. The Russian attack also targeted the Poltava region between Kyiv and Kharkiv, near the Russian border — but the Ukrainian air force said it had intercepted the missiles.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia had 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 echelons of Russia’s security leadership. The official said that the Russian National Guard, the Federal Security Service and the Russian Defence Ministry “were competing and not coordinating with each other.”

The official said Ukrainian forces were in a “very good position,” unable to be outflanked and keeping their flanks short to make them easy to defend. The official added that Kyiv’s media silence had succeeded in keeping Russian forces in the dark about the true number of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.

Kyiv insists that it does not seek to retain the 1,150 square kilometres of territory it has occupied in the Kursk region, except to use it as a bargaining chip in possible future negotiations.

“Ukraine is not interested in occupying Russian territory,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said late Friday, describing the operation as a “military tool … to persuade the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process.”

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has warned that “escalation” in Ukraine could prompt Russia to use nuclear weapons.

In an interview broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday, Lukashenko indicated that the Kremlin does not want to use nuclear weapons, but said any escalation of the war “will end in the destruction of Ukraine.”

“Nobody has ever defeated this empire, and nobody will ever defeat Russia. How is NATO supposed to do that?” said Lukashenko, who has backed Putin in his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly indicated it could use nuclear weapons, some of which are based in Belarus, to stop Ukrainian forces.

Lukashenko also warned Kiev against any action on Belarusian territory, saying that “about a third” of the Belarusian army was deployed on the border with Ukraine and that the area was becoming “more mined than ever.”