Ukrainian forces struck and badly damaged a bridge vital to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, a regional official said, as Russian bombings killed civilians, including a 13yearold boy, who was standing at a bus stop in the troubled northeast Ukraine was waiting for the country.
Ukraine attempted to loosen Russia’s grip on the southern Kherson region by attacking a strategically important bridge.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Moscowbacked temporary administration in the region, said the Ukrainian military attacked the Antonivskyi Bridge spanning the Dnieper with USsupplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.
2 of 3 Russian tanks are advancing over the area near Mariupol which, together with the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, is the focus of the new phase of the Ukrainian war — Photo: Alexei Alexandrov/AP
Russian tanks are advancing over the area near Mariupol which, together with the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, is the focus of the new phase of the Ukrainian war (Photo: Alexei Alexandrov/AP)
The 1.4 km long bridge is the most important river crossing in the Kherson region. Their dismantling would make it difficult for the Russian military to continue deploying its forces in the region, despite repeated Ukrainian attacks.
“The bridge has not been closed, traffic is continuing, but the situation is serious,” Stremousov said, according to Interfax.
Moscowappointed Kherson Prime Minister Vladimir Saldo said in a video message that passenger cars would still be allowed to cross the bridge but truck traffic was halted to allow for quick repairs. He noted that trucks can cross the river via a causeway 80 kilometers away.
Moscow, meanwhile, has made clear that it intends to consolidate territorial gains made in Ukraine since the February 24 invasion.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state television RT and RIA Novosti news agency in an interview published on Wednesday that Russia had expanded the scope of its “military special operation” from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine where Russianbacked separatists have been fighting since 2014 to include the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions and other areas.
3 of 3 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the G20 meeting in Indonesia — Photo: Willy Kurniawan/Pool via R
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the G20 meeting in Indonesia — Photo: Willy Kurniawan/Pool via R
He noted that when Russia and Ukraine discussed a possible deal to end hostilities in March, “our willingness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on the geography of March 2022.”
“It’s a different geography now,” he said, while also echoing previous Moscow claims that the US and Britain were escalating hostilities.
Lavrov claimed the US was blocking Ukraine from opening negotiations on a possible deal with Russia.
“They prevent them from constructive actions and not only from injecting weapons, but force them to use these weapons in increasingly risky ways,” Lavrov said.