Ukraine destroys key bridge in Kursk region

KYIV — Ukrainian forces destroyed a bridge across the Seim River in Russia’s Kursk region, a local official said Friday, as Kyiv continued to press its cross-border military offensive.
“As a result of the strike from the Ukrainian side, a road bridge across the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district was destroyed,” Alexei Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, said in a statement on Telegram Friday evening. He didn’t provide more details.
Kyiv has not acknowledged the attack.
The pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Mash said Ukrainian forces struck the bridge several times with HIMARS rockets. The destruction of the bridge cuts off at least 27 settlements, according to Mash, which said the bridge was a main evacuation route for civilians.
Russian state news agency TASS quoted a regional law-enforcement representative confirming the attack. “We confirm reports that the enemy struck a bridge across the Seim. Overland evacuation from a part of the Glushkovsky District is now cut off,” TASS quoted the person as saying.
The Russian opposition media website Istories said the bridge was in a “key logistics area of the Russian Armed Forces.”
Kyiv’s forces continued their advance in the Kursk region on Friday. “Our soldiers continue fighting, advancing in various directions from 1 to 3 kilometers,” Ukrainian Army Commander in Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a staff meeting on Friday. “In general, the situation is under control,” Syrskyi said.
When Zelenskyy asked him if there were new prisoners of war, Syrskyi said he hoped Ukrainian forces would take a lot in the area of Malaya Lokna village.
“We see that the occupier is suffering losses,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address late Friday. Kyiv’s military offensives are “about destroying the logistics of the Russian army and draining their reserves,” he said.
“We must inflict maximum damage on all Russian positions, and we are doing that,” Zelenskyy added.
Ukraine continued to secure its hold on Sudzha, the only big city they claim to control in the Kursk region. Syrskyi appointed the first military command officer there. Ukrainians also dismantled Vladimir Lenin’s monument in the city, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture said.
Russian forces, meanwhile, are advancing in the Donetsk region. Local governments on Friday reported Moscow’s soldiers came within 10 kilometers of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, two strategically important cities in the region. They urged local residents to evacuate.  
This article has been updated.