Demolishing the crossing ‘cuts off’ Putin’s remaining soldiers defending the region invaded by Zelensky’s forces
16 August 2024
Ukrainian Himars artillery has destroyed a key bridge across a river in the Kursk region that Russia was using to reinforce its embattled soldiers.
Russian military bloggers said the destruction of the road bridge across the Seym River outside the village of Glushkovo would force Russian reinforcements on a dangerous detour.
“If (when) the enemy manages to destroy all good crossings, it will cut off the entire group of the Russian Armed Forces defending in the Glushkovo district,” the Russian Telegram channel Military Observer posted.
Glushkovo lies about 15 miles north of the border with Ukraine and is roughly 40 miles west of Sudzha, the focus of Ukraine’s initial cross-border assault last week.
The Russian ministry of defence has not commented but Tough Kursk, a local Russian Telegram channel, confirmed the strike.
It published a video of the heavily damaged bridge before it was completely destroyed, already punctured by precise artillery shell strikes from the US-made weapons.
“They are trying to destroy the bridge, probably with Himars,” said the reporter after stopping briefly on the bridge to point out the damage before speeding off. “We’re getting out of here.”
Later photos showed the bridge snapped in two with the middle section jutting out of the river below.
The Baza Telegram channel, which has links to the Russian security forces, confirmed that the bridge had been destroyed by Ukrainian Himars and said that a second bridge a few miles downstream was now being targeted.
On Friday, Oleskander Syrsky, Ukraine’s top general, said that his army’s forces had advanced up to three kilometres further into enemy territory.
The Kremlin has responded to the first invasion of Russia since the Second World War, launched 11 days ago, by rushing troops, tanks and armoured vehicles to the border region.
On Friday, Nikolai Patrushev, a key adviser to Vladimir Putin, blamed the West for the Ukraine attack which he said “had been planned with the participation of Nato special forces”.
British Challenger II tanks and other Western equipment have been used in the attack but Britain has refused to give Ukraine permission to use its Storm Shadow missiles to strike targets further inside Russia.
On Friday, Boris Johnson urged Britain to give permission to Volodymyr Zelensky to use the long-range missiles.
Writing in the Daily Mail, the former prime minister urged Sir Keir Starmer to stop “pussyfooting around” and to give Ukraine the green light to use the “bunker-busting” missiles made by the UK and France.
“Can we finally cut the cackle, drop the ludicrous Putin-phobia and give the Ukrainians the tools they really need to finish the job,” he said.
The US has previously given Ukraine permission to use its Himars artillery against targets up to 65 miles inside Russia, which means that bridges across the Seym River are in range.
The Ministry of Defence has now said that after initial confusion, the Russian military has reorganised its defences in the Kursk region and has built “additional defensive positions”.
This has meant pulling together a hotchpotch of different forces, including some regular army units, the FSB’s Border Guards, the National Guard and conscripts.
Of these forces, analysts said that the deployment of conscripts was the most controversial in Russia because conscription is regarded as a rite of passage for young men rather than a war-fighting machine.
“There is the idea that you might say that they’re still kind of half-children,” said Mark Galeotti, an honorary professor at UCL and the author of several books on Russia and Putin. “They have been entrusted by their family to the state, and therefore the state should at least not waste them.”
Reports from the first few days of the incursion said that hundreds of conscripts barely out of basic training had surrendered to the Ukrainian army.
Videos of callow teenage Russian conscripts captured by battle-hardened Ukrainian soldiers have filled social media channels.
An online petition of mothers begging Putin to withdraw conscripts from battle has received nearly 10,000 signatures.
On the ‘Go to the forest’ Telegram channel, a Russian language anti-war information channel, a woman described how her son had only been given 10 days of basic training and fired a rifle twice before he had been sent into battle in Kursk.
“They lined up everyone who had just arrived from the training ground, and selected 90 people who were sent to Kursk,” she said. “Tomorrow, other guys are being sent there.”
Although researchers have said that only a few hundred conscripts have been killed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, they have not been heavily deployed in Ukraine as conscripts are only legally allowed to fight inside Russia’s borders.
Stephen Hall, an assistant professor of Russian politics at the University of Bath, said that the Kremlin-linked media was “trying to keep the deployment of conscripts quiet” but news has still leaked out and was causing disquiet in Russia.
A Russian living in a major city told The Telegraph that people were split on the deployment of conscripts.
“Some are afraid for the conscripts but others also said that this is their job, that they must protect the country,” the source said.
Well I’ll be dam, those US HIMARS are extremely accurate. I think Scragelrock and OnlyPuss need to thank the U.S. for military aide, But you won’t.
You are a sanctimonious prick.
As F1 says, we support anyone who helps Ukraine and credit is always given when credit’s due.
Only yesterday I commented that despite his failings, Biden has kept Ukraine in the game. But he has prolonged the war by tying them down with pointless restrictions.
Every single one of Ukraine’s allies fell short of the mark and been criticised equally for it.
The only ones that don’t get criticised are the tiny Baltic states who provide assistance that is disproportionate to their size.
As a proportion of their economic power, the Budapest signatories, plus Germany and France have all fallen well short and been firmly criticised for it.
He seems to be a narrow-minded scrote.
You are not a military-minded individual, since you have quite some difficulty comprehending the huge mistake that a too little, too late strategy is, in particular when combating one of the largest land armies on this planet, led by a most vicious, inhumane regime, not seen since the days of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. You also have no inkling about what we COULD be sending to Ukraine, including PERMISSION to use them whenever necessary.
But you can hop and jump and hoot with joy for the White House’s pussified performance all you want, it won’t change Biden’s spinelessness one bit.
This superb strike highlights the potential of what could happen to the roach infrastructure and other military-relevant targets when you have high-quality weapons being used by a high-quality army.
I implore the Western nations to finally grow a spine and give Ukraine permission to strike deep into mafia land with long-range weapons! Now!
Scradel, Im shocked you gave Biden credit. Typically the 2 of you have been bashing Biden lately. Onlypuss still doesn’t get it. This will never an all out dominant 1 sided war where Ukraine is handed every weapon it wants. This is a war of attrition. Strategy, logistics new technology , financial aid, training etc all need to be factored in. Even the US has limits.
Ukrainian has done an outstanding job holding off Russia. You’ve done some serious damage to Russias military might without causing WW3. This is a war like never seen before. Drones have proven to be tremendous value from reconnaissance to destroying planes that cost millions of dollars with cheap drones.
Russia is closer to collapsing again as their people begin to panic , Ukraine has broken through and frankly your military has done some severe damage recently by cutting off supply routes , destroying air fields, planes , helicopters, electronic warfare systems, sunk a sub and several of their ships. The personnel that Russia has donated to Ukrainian the soil is beginning to take its toll , factories are short of men, maintenance personnel etc. Ukraine is destroying railways , fuel storage facilities, oil refineries. The list goes on and on.
All of this is a combined effort comes from multiple countries across the globe. Do I think the US can do more, possibly. It’s also coming at a cost to the American people, do I care, no. It’s the price we pay to help and we would do it again.
You can do everyone a favor by taking a long walk on a short pier, little guy.
You have little understanding about military matters, so just refrain from giving useless comments about them and stop the childish name-calling.
I just shed a tear. If you don’t chip in your buck o’five who will? USA USA USA
That being said, Biden is listening to too many pussies and Republicans have lost their national security bona fide.