Moscow says destruction of bridge in western Russia will hinder the evacuation of civilians amid Ukrainian incursion.
Russia has accused Ukraine of utilizing Western rockets – doubtless made in the USA – to focus on a strategic bridge over the Seym River within the Kursk area, killing volunteers making an attempt to evacuate civilians.
Ukrainian forces hit the bridge within the Glushkovsky district of Kursk on Friday as they pushed ahead with their incursion into the territory in western Russia.
“For the primary time, the Kursk area was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, most likely American HIMARS,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of International Affairs, mentioned late on Friday on the Telegram messaging app.
“On account of the assault on the bridge … it was utterly destroyed, and volunteers who have been helping the evacuated civilian inhabitants have been killed.”
Russia’s information company TASS launched the names of two volunteers it mentioned have been “murdered” within the assault.
Russian officers even have mentioned the destruction of the bridge will hinder the evacuation of civilians from the world.
Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk comes simply months after the US and a number of other of its NATO allies mentioned in Could that that they had authorised Kyiv to make use of their weapons to assault targets inside Russia.
Al Jazeera’s Defence Editor Alex Gatopoulos mentioned Friday’s bridge bombing will make it troublesome for Russian forces to defend the world towards Ukrainian advances and entry provides.
“Russian models there [are] caught between a river and a tough place – not very many locations for them to go in the intervening time,” he mentioned.
“Now, there’s going to be a problem for the Russians as a result of if they will’t provide these models with the ammunition that they want – and the gas – then these models can be compelled to retreat over the river.”
The Ukrainian navy, which has been battling a Russian invasion since February 2022, launched the Kursk offensive earlier this month – a marketing campaign that has been described as the primary incursion by a overseas military into Russia since World Conflict II.
On Thursday, Ukraine mentioned it captured the Russian city of Sudzha, a strategic pure gasoline hub within the Kursk area.
Kyiv claims it has taken management of 82 settlements in Russia over an space of 1,150sq km (440sq miles) since August 6.
Ukrainian officers have mentioned the nation doesn’t purpose to carry on to Russian territory. On Thursday, a Ukrainian presidential adviser mentioned the Kursk incursion could be “used to persuade the Russian Federation to enter into a good negotiation course of”.
Marina Miron, a navy analyst at King’s Faculty of London, instructed Al Jazeera that politically, Ukraine is hoping to make use of its Kursk operation “as a bargaining chip” in negotiations with Russia.
“It is crucial [that] Ukraine is saying they aren’t going to occupy that land,” mentioned Miron, noting that the incursion – and the usage of Western tools on Russian oil – “has brought about some considerations even when it was accepted that Ukraine is doing this operation to defend itself”.
Kyiv is also making an attempt to “relieve stress” from the Donbas area by drawing Russian troops into Kursk, Miron mentioned.
That “doesn’t appear to be working as of but, however it’s clear that the Ukrainian forces are attempting to entrench themselves in that area”, she added.
For its half, Moscow has insisted that it’s succeeding in repelling the Ukrainian offensive and inflicting heavy losses on Kyiv’s forces.
On Saturday, TASS reported – citing the Russia’s Ministry of Defence – that Russian forces shot down 10 HIMARS rockets and 35 Ukrainian drones, and killed 420 “enemy servicemen” prior to now 24 hours.
Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari highlighted that each side are releasing contradictory accounts of what is occurring.
“After all, it’s very troublesome to independently confirm what is occurring on the bottom,” Jabbari mentioned. “We’re getting completely different variations of what’s taking place from the Ukrainian facet in addition to the counter-narrative popping out of the Russian Defence Ministry.”
