Ukraine ‘strengthening positions in Russia’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday his forces were strengthening their positions in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive for more than 11 days.His comments came a day after Moscow accused Ukraine of destroying a key bridge over a river in the border region, as Kyiv seeks to disrupt supply routes and the movement of Moscow’s troops in the area.Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrsky "reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of stabilised territory”, Zelensky said in a post on Telegram."As of this morning, we have replenished the exchange fund for our country,” Zelensky said, referring to Russian soldiers Ukraine has captured to be used in future prisoner swaps."The operation is proceeding exactly as we expected,” the Ukrainian leader later said in his evening address.Kyiv claims to have taken control of more than 80 settlements including the key town of Sudzha in its lightning incursion, which caught the Kremlin off guard almost two and a half years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.The Russian defence ministry said yesterday it had pushed back Ukrainian forces near three settlements in the Kursk region, and was searching for "mobile enemy groups” trying to pierce deeper into the country.Russian officials on Friday accused Ukraine of striking a strategically important bridge just a couple dozen kilometres away from fighting in the Kursk region. The region’s governor, Alexei Smirnov, said on Friday evening the bridge went over the Seym river in the Glushkovsky district, some 11km away from the border.An aerial video published by Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk appeared to show the bridge being hit by a projectile at high speed before collapsing in a cloud of smoke."Ukrainian pilots are conducting precision strikes on enemy strongholds, equipment concentrations, as well as on enemy logistics centres and supply routes,” he said on Telegram.Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the bridge was "completely destroyed” and that "volunteers providing assistance to the evacuated civilian population were killed”."All those responsible for these inhumane acts will be severely punished,” she said. Russian shelling attacks killed at least two people in east and northeast Ukraine yesterday, according to Ukrainian officials.In the eastern Donetsk region city of Myrnograd, about 5km east of Pokrovsk, Russian shelling killed at least one person and wounded four others, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. He posted pictures on Telegram showing the collapsed rubble of a high-rise building and flaming debris on the street there.