Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said he was briefed by his top commander on new details of the operation in Russia's west Kursk region. "We are achieving our goals. In the morning, there is another replenishment of the exchange fund for our state," he said on Telegram, referring to Russian soldiers taken prisoner by Ukraine.
Ukraine struck a third bridge over Seym river in Russia's Kursk region
Meanwhile, a Russian investigator said that Ukraine had struck and damaged a third bridge over the Seym river in Russia's Kursk region a day earlier, where Moscow's troops have been battling Kyiv's forces for nearly two weeks. "On August 18, as a result of targeted shelling with the use of rocket and artillery weapons against residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in the Karyzh village...a third bridge over the Seym river was damaged," a representative for Russia's Investigative Committee said.
The video statement was posted on Russian state TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov's Telegram channel.
Russian forces have been fighting Ukrainian troops in Kursk region since Aug. 6, when thousands of Kyiv's troops smashed through Russia's western border in a major embarrassment for the Russian military top brass. The Russian foreign ministry said on Friday that Ukraine had used Western rockets, likely US-made HIMARS, to destroy a bridge over the Seym river in the Glushkovo district.
In a separate video statement posted to Solovyov's Telegram channel on Sunday, a representative for Russian investigators said a second bridge over the Seym near the village of Zvannoe in Kursk region used to evacuate civilians had been "damaged" by US-made HIMARS. Ukraine's air force commander claimed on Sunday that the Ukrainian air force had destroyed that second bridge,thus limiting the supply capacity of a Russian group opposing the Ukrainian advance.
Military analysts say there are three bridges in the area of the Ukrainian army's offensive through which Russia supplies its forces. Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said on Sunday that Ukraine was likely to try to take control in the coming days of another strategic bridge, over the Psyol River.
Russia is not ready for peace talks but...
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow was not ready to hold peace talks with Ukraine for now given Kyiv's attack on Russia's Kursk region, but that Russia was not withdrawing its earlier peace proposals. Ushakov made the comments in a video statement broadcast by the SHOT news outlet. "At this stage, given this venture (Kursk), we will not talk," said Ushakov.
Asked if proposals for peace talks put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June were now off the table, Ushakov said they were not. "No, they (the proposals) have not been cancelled. But at this point, of course, it would be completely inappropriate to enter into any kind of negotiation process," said Ushakov. Asked how long Moscow would maintain its stance on pausing the prospect of any talks with Kyiv, Ushakov said: "I don't know. It will depend on the situation, including on the battlefield."
Notably, Putin in June said that Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow, demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.
(With inputs from agencies)
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