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Ukraine is blowing up bridges to consolidate its positions in Russia’s border area of Kursk because the Kremlin struggles to muster the forces wanted to push them out.
Ukrainian drive chief Mykola Oleshchuk printed two movies over the weekend of air strikes destroying two bridges throughout the river Seym close to the cities of Glushkovo and Zvannoe, which analysts say will hamper Russian navy logistics and permit Ukraine to consolidate its positions.
“The Air Pressure continues to deprive the enemy of its logistical capabilities with exact air strikes, which considerably impacts the course of hostilities,” Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram in a submit that features video footage of the bridges being blown up. He added that the strikes additionally focused weapons depots, logistics hubs and Russian provide traces.
Russia’s defence ministry mentioned on Saturday it was battling Ukrainian forces in 4 villages about 40km north-west of Sudzha, the city held by Ukraine, in addition to round Cherkasskoe Porechnoe, about 15km north of Sudzha.
The Ukrainian aspect has imposed media silence on the operation and isn’t reporting real-time battlefield motion. It has, nonetheless, claimed management over Sudzha, the place it arrange a navy workplace and floated the potential of opening up humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians.
Whereas President Vladimir Putin has vowed an “acceptable response” to the daring Ukrainian operation, his forces have to date did not push again Kyiv’s forces. Moscow, nonetheless, has launched extra aerial assaults on Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities on Sunday mentioned they repelled a Russian drone and missile assault on Kyiv, in addition to on Sumy area from the place the Kursk offensive was launched on August 6. The Russian assault additionally focused Poltava area between Kyiv and Kharkiv, close to the Russian border — however Ukrainian air forces mentioned they intercepted the missiles.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned on Sunday that Russia had used 40 drones, 750 aerial bombs and 200 drones towards Ukraine prior to now week.
A senior Ukrainian safety official instructed the Monetary Instances that the operation had precipitated panic throughout the higher echelons of Russia’s safety management. The Russian nationwide guard, the FSB and the Russian defence ministry had been “competing and never co-ordinating with one another”, the official mentioned.
Ukrainian troops had been in a “excellent place”, the official mentioned, as they couldn’t be encircled and had been preserving their flanks brief to make it simpler to defend. The media silence imposed by Kyiv had succeeded in preserving Russian troops at midnight as to the actual variety of Ukrainian forces in Kursk area, the official added.
Kyiv has insisted it’s not searching for to carry the 1,150 sq km of captured territory in Kursk area, past utilizing it as a bargaining chip in potential future negotiations.
“Ukraine will not be eager about occupying Russian territories,” mentioned presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak late on Friday. He described the operation as a “navy instrument . . . to persuade the Russian Federation to enter into a good negotiation course of”.
The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has warned that Ukraine’s “escalation” might provoke Russia into utilizing nuclear weapons.
In an interview broadcast on Russian state tv on Sunday, Lukashenko implied that the Kremlin didn’t need to use nuclear weapons, however he mentioned any escalation of the warfare “will finish with the destruction of Ukraine”.
“No person has ever defeated this empire, and so they gained’t defeat Russia. How is Nato meant to do it?” mentioned Lukashenko, who has backed Putin in his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly made thinly veiled hints that it might use nuclear weapons, a few of that are stationed in Belarus, to cease Ukraine’s forces.
Lukashenko additionally warned Kyiv towards any motion on Belarusian territory, saying that “nearly a 3rd” of the Belarusian military had been deployed to the border with Ukraine and that the realm had been mined “like by no means earlier than”.
