Moscow announced yesterday that Ukraine hit the third bridge in an attack on Russia's Kursk region, which Kiev claims is aimed at creating a buffer zone and exhausting the Russian war machine.
However, Ukrainian forces are on the defensive on other fronts, fighting to protect the eastern city of Pokrovsk, where Russia has been advancing in recent weeks, Reuters reported.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that Ukrainian forces control more than 1.250 square kilometers and 92 settlements in Russia's Kursk region.
He called on Ukraine's allies to allow Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia, saying the lack of such permission was the main reason Ukraine was unable to stop the advance of Moscow's troops on the eastern front.
"The naive, illusory concept of the so-called red lines in relation to Russia, which dominated the assessment of the war among some partners, has disintegrated these days somewhere near Suja," Zelensky said in an address to the ambassadors, referring to the border town in the Russian region of Kursk, which is currently under the control of Ukraine.
Russia said a third bridge on the Seym River, which runs through the Kursk region on the border with northeastern Ukraine, was hit and damaged. Military analysts said the bridges are part of key supply lines for Russian troops defending the area.
Zelensky said on Sunday that his troops were carrying out what he described as "maximum counter-offensive actions" aimed at creating a buffer zone and damaging Moscow's military capabilities.
More than 121.000 people have been evacuated from nine border districts in the Kursk region, the Russian emergency ministry said. Assistant to the Russian president, Yuri Ushakov, said that Moscow is not ready to hold peace talks with Ukraine for now, considering the attack on Kursk. Ukraine demands the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory before any negotiations begin.
Ukrainian forces are facing heavy fighting near Pokrovsk, a transit center for Ukrainian forces. Russian troops are now about 10 kilometers from the outskirts of the city, said Serhij Dobrijak, head of the local military administration. He said about 600 people are leaving the city on a daily basis and that municipal services could be cut off within a week as Russian forces approach.
Regional governor Vadim Filashkin said that the curfew in the settlements near Pokrovsko has been tightened and that the situation is "very difficult".
Ukraine's top general said Kiev is also "doing everything necessary" to defend the eastern city of Toretsk as Moscow tries to threaten Ukrainian supply lines. Russia said its forces had captured the nearby town of Zalizhne.
The war, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and devastated cities across Ukraine, shows no signs of abating. Kyiv expects Moscow to increase its forces in Ukraine to 800.000 by the end of the year, from the current 600.000, said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Havriljuk.
Kiev receives arms support from its allies, but is concerned that this support could wane as the war continues. Britain reiterated its support for Ukraine yesterday, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Kyiv on August 23.
However, shares of German defense companies fell yesterday after a newspaper reported that the finance ministry would not approve additional requests for military aid to Ukraine due to budget constraints.
A spokesman for the German finance ministry later said that Berlin is working intensively with its Group of Seven partners on a plan to provide loans for military support to Ukraine, financed with proceeds from frozen Russian assets.
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