(AP) A Russian missile attack sparked fires in the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Saturday, while Ukrainian forces continued their advance into Russia’s border region of Kursk.
The attack on Sumy wounded two people and damaged a vehicle and nearby buildings, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said, adding that it used an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb.
The Ukrainian Air Force also said it shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including in the Kyiv region.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since August 6 in an attempt to divert the Kremlin’s military focus from the Ukrainian front line.
Alexander Kots, a military reporter for the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, said Ukrainian pressure in Kursk “has not yet let up.”
“The situation is stable on the main part of the rough terrain front. But in some areas the enemy continues to try to expand its bridgehead,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that Ukraine had destroyed a bridge over the Seim River in Grushkovsky district with a U.S.-made Himars rocket, the first time the rocket has been used in the Kursk region.
Zakharova’s comments could not be independently verified, but the Washington-based think tank, the Institute for War Studies, said geolocated video released on August 16 showed the bridge collapsed after the attack.
A Russian military blogger said the destruction of the bridge would hinder supplies to Russian troops but would not cut them off completely.
“Nobody’s canceled the piers,” Kotz said, emphasizing that the Seim is smaller than Ukrainian waterways such as the Dnieper, “and there are still smaller bridges.”
Second region declares state of emergency as Ukrainian forces push deeper into Russia https://t.co/8Y0DimdsWV
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 15, 2024
While Russia has previously conducted raids on its own territory during wars, the Kursk invasion was notable for its scale, speed, the reported involvement of battle-hardened Ukrainian brigades, and the length of time they remained on Russian soil — Western military analysts say as many as 10,000 Ukrainian troops were involved.
The incursion, which Russian authorities say has displaced more than 120,000 civilians, came as a shock to many, Yan Furtsev, an activist and member of the local opposition party Yabloko, told The Associated Press.
“No one expected these clashes in the Kursk region. That’s why there is confusion and panic. Residents are arriving (from the frontline areas) and they are scared – very scared,” he said.
Ukrainian forces also captured several Russian soldiers who were moving through the area.
The Associated Press on Friday visited a Ukrainian detention center in a location that cannot be disclosed due to security restrictions and saw dozens of prisoners, some with their hands tied behind their backs, being escorted down corridors by guards and given rations of thin cabbage and onion soup.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday thanked Ukrainian soldiers and commanders who captured the Russian soldiers and said the country’s “exchange fund” used to negotiate the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war was being replenished.
“I thank all the soldiers and commanders who are working to capture Russian servicemen and advance the release of Russian soldiers and civilians held in Russian custody,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Twitter.
Ukraine asks to withdraw from Pokrovsk as Russian troops approachhttps://t.co/i2LUbVJfb8
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 16, 2024
