Ukraine says strengthening positions in Russia

This photograph taken on 16 August, 2024, during a media tour organised by Ukraine, shows a damaged statue of the founder of the Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin in the Ukrainian-controlled Russian town of Sudzha, Kursk region, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Agence France-Presse

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday his forces were strengthening their positions in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive for more than 11 days.

His comments came a day after Moscow accused Ukraine of destroying a key bridge over a river in the border region, as Kyiv seeks to disrupt supply routes and the movement of Moscow’s troops in the area.

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrsky “reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of stabilized territory”, Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.

READ: Ukraine claims new advances in Russia incursion

“As of this morning, we have replenished the exchange fund for our country,” Zelensky said, referring to Russian soldiers Ukraine has captured to be used in future prisoner swaps.

“The operation is proceeding exactly as we expected,” the Ukrainian leader later said in his evening address.

Kyiv claims to have taken control of more than 80 settlements including the key town of Sudzha in its lightning incursion, which caught the Kremlin off guard almost two and a half years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

READ: Zelensky: Ukraine troops have taken full control of Russia’s Sudzha

The Russian defense ministry said Saturday it had pushed back Ukrainian forces near three settlements in the Kursk region, and was searching for “mobile enemy groups” trying to pierce deeper into the country.

Bridge ‘completely destroyed’

Russian officials on Friday accused Ukraine of striking a strategically important bridge just a couple dozen kilometers away from fighting in the Kursk region.

The region’s governor, Alexei Smirnov, said on Friday evening the bridge went over the Seym river in the Glushkovsky district, some 11 kilometers (seven miles) away from the border.

An aerial video published by Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk appeared to show the bridge being hit by a projectile at high speed before collapsing in a cloud of smoke.

“Ukrainian pilots are conducting precision strikes on enemy strongholds, equipment concentrations, as well as on enemy logistics centres and supply routes,” he said on Telegram.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the bridge was “completely destroyed” and that “volunteers providing assistance to the evacuated civilian population were killed”.

“All those responsible for these inhumane acts will be severely punished,” she said.

Danger to nuclear site

Russia also accused Ukraine Saturday of dropping an explosive charge on a road near the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

The plant, seized by Russia’s forces early in the war, has come under repeated attacks for which each side has blamed the other.

Rafael Grossi, who heads up the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), expressed his alarm at the latest incident.

“I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides,” he said.

An IAEA statement, summarizing what its on-site team had told them, said: “The team has heard frequent explosions, repetitive heavy machine gun and rifle fire and artillery at various distances from the plant.”

‘Under control’

While Ukraine’s incursion into Russia has boosted to Kyiv, it appears to have had little impact on the larger battles raging in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.

Zelensky said on Saturday there had been “dozens of Russian assaults” on Ukrainian positions near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, where Moscow has made a string of advances in recent weeks.

“Our soldiers and units are doing everything to destroy the occupier and repel the attacks,” Zelensky said, stressing the situation was “under control”.

Russia said Friday its forces had captured another village near Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian-held logistics hub that lies on a road supplying troops and towns across the eastern front.

The head of Pokrovsk’s military administration, Sergiy Dobryak, warned on Thursday that Russia was a little over 10 kilometres from the outskirts of the city and urged remaining residents to evacuate.

Russian shelling attacks killed at least two people in east and northeast Ukraine on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials.

In the eastern Donetsk region city of Myrnograd, about five kilometres east of Pokrovsk, Russian shelling killed at least one person and wounded four others, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said.

He posted pictures on Telegram showing the collapsed rubble of a high-rise building and flaming debris on the street there.

Russian shelling killed a 49-year-old woman was killed early Saturday in the border town of Kozacha Lopan in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, regional prosecutors said.