Ukraine says it hits pontoon bridges in Russia with US-made weapons – Euractiv

Ukraine mentioned on Wednesday (21 August) it had destroyed Russian pontoon bridges with US-made weapons to defend its incursion into Russia’s Kursk area, whereas Moscow mentioned its forces had halted Kyiv’s advance there and gained floor in jap Ukraine.

Kyiv has introduced a string of battlefield successes because it crossed unexpectedly into Kursk area on 6 August. Moscow has steadily inched ahead in jap Ukraine, pressuring troops worn down by 2-1/2 years of preventing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine’s navy was responding to the Russian push by strengthening its forces round Pokrovsk, the main focus of Russian advances in jap Ukraine.

Talking in certainly one of his common televised addresses, he additionally urged Kyiv’s allies to honour commitments to ship munitions to be used by the Ukrainian armed forces. “That is elementary for defence,” he mentioned.

Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Ukraine’s shut ally Germany, mentioned he anticipated Kyiv’s push in Kursk area to be a “very restricted operation when it comes to area and possibly additionally when it comes to time”, including Berlin had not been consulted upfront.

Ukraine has carefully guarded its overarching goals in Kursk area, however mentioned it has carved out a buffer zone from an space Russia has used to pound targets in Ukraine with cross-border strikes.

A video posted by Ukrainian particular forces confirmed strikes on a number of pontoon crossings in Kursk area, the place Russia has reported that Ukraine has destroyed a minimum of three bridges over the Seym river because it seeks to carry the captured land.

“The place do Russian pontoon bridges ‘disappear’ within the Kursk area? Operators … precisely destroy them,” Ukraine’s Particular Operations Forces mentioned on Telegram messenger.

Ukraine’s Overseas Ministry has mentioned Kyiv has made larger territorial features within the Kursk area than Moscow has made in Ukraine this yr. Russia has referred to as the incursion an escalation.

Ukraine smashed by the Russian border within the Kursk area on 6 August in an try and drive Moscow to divert troops from the remainder of the entrance, although Russian forces have continued to advance in latest days.

Russia took the settlement of Zhelanne, which lies lower than 20 km to the east of the transport hub Pokrovsk, in line with the Russian defence ministry.

Each side reported being focused by main drone assaults. Ukraine mentioned it intercepted 50 of 69 drones launched by Russia; Moscow mentioned its air defences destroyed 45 drones over Russian territory, together with 11 over the Moscow area.

Reporting again to Moscow, Main Basic Apti Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya’s Akhmat particular forces and the deputy head of the defence ministry’s military-political division, mentioned Russia had stalled the Ukrainian incursion.

“We halted them and began pushing them again,” Alaudinov instructed Rossiya state tv. He mentioned Ukrainian forces had been regrouping and will quickly launch a brand new assault, although he gave no additional particulars.

Russia has repeatedly mentioned the Ukrainian offensive has been halted. Ukraine has stored touting features, saying it has captured 92 settlements over an space of greater than 1,250 sq. km.

The Ukrainian navy, which has not made important features by itself soil since late 2022, has gotten a a lot wanted morale increase from the incursion.

Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian parliament’s nationwide defence committee, mentioned Russia’s precedence remained to seize the Donetsk area regardless of the incursion and that it was not pulling forces from close to Pokrovsk to behave as reinforcements.

“The enemy certainly started to switch some troops… However they’ve a principal place – to not withdraw troops from the Pokrovsk path,” he was quoted as saying by Espreso.TV media.

Strikes on logistics

Mykola Bielieskov, a analysis fellow on the Ukrainian Nationwide Institute for Strategic Research, a think-tank in Kyiv, mentioned assaults on bridges and pontoons would assist Ukraine construct a line of defense alongside the river.

“This is a chance to make it extra steady, systemic, able to repel Russian assaults,” he mentioned in remarks on nationwide tv.

Reuters confirmed that every one the strike places of pontoon bridges proven within the video had been situated on or subsequent to the Seym river within the Kursk area.

The video additionally confirmed drone strikes on navy vans and different places described as a Russian munitions warehouse and an digital warfare complicated within the area. Different places or the date when the video was filmed couldn’t be independently verified.

Individually, Reuters was in a position to confirm that a minimum of one pontoon crossing was apparently destroyed.

It was probably arrange between 14 and 17 August between the Russian settlements of Zvannoe and Glushkovo after two bridges had been destroyed or broken earlier.

The crossing, some 14 km from the border, was passed by 19 August, satellite tv for pc imagery confirmed. Smoke was additionally seen in photos from the world that day.

The Ukrainian assertion mentioned US-manufactured HIMARS rocket techniques had been used as a part of operations to disrupt Russian logistics within the Kursk area, Kyiv’s first official assertion acknowledging its use of the weapon throughout its incursion.

Washington has not commented immediately on using US-made weapons in Kursk area, whereas saying US insurance policies haven’t modified and Ukraine was defending itself from Russia’s ongoing all-out invasion.

Whereas allies have barred Ukraine from conducting long-range strikes with Western weapons inside Russia, they’ve allowed Kyiv to make use of them to hit border areas since Russia’s new offensive on Kharkiv area this spring.

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