A map shows the swathes of the Kursk region that Ukraine may gain control over now that three bridges used to prop up Russian military logistics are believed to have been destroyed.
Kyiv struck a third bridge across the River Seym in Kursk, Kremlin-backed and independent Russian sources said on Monday, after Ukraine’s air force on Sunday said it had already destroyed two bridges.
The latest bridge to reportedly go down, around the village of Karyzh, west of Glushkovo and Zvannoye, may be the final straw that stops the supply of military personnel in the area.
Military experts quoted by the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo said this could force Russian soldiers to leave this territory, resulting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces gaining control of almost 700 square kilometers.
Ukraine 🇺🇦 is confirmed to have destroyed the 3rd and final bridge across the Seym River connecting Russian forces to the Glushkovsky District, Kursk
Russia can no longer bring supplies or equipment into or out of ~640km2, roughly the area Russia took in the past year in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/4VHt8MmN7i
— Ukraine Battle Map (@ukraine_map) August 19, 2024
It comes after this weekend saw a bridge over the Seym River, near the village of Zvannoye, destroyed with U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles, according to Russian news Telegram channel Mash.
And this came just two days after Ukrainian forces reportedly destroyed a different bridge over the Seym River in the Glushkovsky district, 42 miles northwest of the city of Sudzha.
“There is only one bridge left in the district near the village of Glushkovo,” Mash reported on Sunday, before reports of the third bridge strike emerged on Monday.
Glushkovo was evacuated last Wednesday, after Ukrainian soldiers were filmed removing Russian flags from buildings.
The acting governor of Kursk, Alexey Smirnov, said at the time that 121,000 people had left Kursk Oblast and that authorities would evacuate a total of 180,000 people from the region.
Ukraine has previously said it does not plan to keep the territory it gains in Kursk but rather hopes to prop up the war effort on the front lines by cutting off Russian logistics.
Kyiv launched its surprise incursion into Russian territory on August 6, sending thousands of troops across the border. As of last Thursday, Ukraine controlled at least 80 settlements in Kursk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
He also said that “hundreds of Russian servicemen” had been captured, adding to the country’s prisoner-of-war “exchange fund.”
AP
But on the same day, the Russian Defense Ministry said Kyiv had lost 2,600 troops since its operation in Kursk and insisted its forces “continue to repel the Ukrainian advance.”
Moscow has deployed its so-called “space troops” to push back Ukraine’s forces in Kursk, independent investigative Russian outlet Important Stories reported on Sunday.
These fighters, a regiment from Russia’s Aerospace Forces, consist of personnel from security and logistics companies, engineers, mechanics, some officers, and servicemen from a Russian spaceport.
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Ministry of Defense for further comment.
