A satellite image shows a bridge collapsed over the Seym river in the Glushkovo district, following a Ukrainian strike in the Kursk region, Russia, August 17, 2024. 2024 Planet Labs Inc./Handout via REUTERS
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian air forces have destroyed another strategic bridge over the Seym River in Russia's Kursk region, limiting the supply capacity of a Russian group opposing the Ukrainian advance, Ukraine's commander said on Sunday.
Kyiv said it had seized more than 80 settlements over 1,150 square km (444 square miles) in Kursk since launching a surprise strike across the border on Aug. 6, the biggest invasion of Russia since World War Two.
"Kursk direction. Minus one more bridge! Ukrainian Air Force aviation continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precision airstrikes, which significantly affects the course of hostilities," Mykola Oleshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app.
He posted a video showing a growing cloud from an explosion on a bridge and one of its sections destroyed. Reuters could not independently confirm the destruction of the bridge or the situation on the battlefield in Kursk.
"Our operation in the Kursk region is still inflicting losses on the Russian army and the Russian state, their defence industry and their economy," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an evening television address.
He thanked the Ukrainian forces involved in the Kursk operation and on the eastern front and asked the country's allies to speed up the delivery of promised military aid.
"Regarding deliveries from our partners - need acceleration, we ask very much. War has no holidays," Zelenskiy said.
Russia has called the incursion a major provocation and vowed to retaliate with a "worthy response," more than 2-1/2 years since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The bridge is the second attacked by Ukraine since Friday.
Earlier, military analysts said there were three bridges in the area of the Ukrainian army's offensive through which Russia supplies its forces and that two of them have been either destroyed or seriously damaged.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Alex Richardson)
