Ukrainian forces have destroyed a bridge over the Seym River in Russia's Kursk region, hindering the relocation of civilians by land, Russia's TASS news agency reports citing local security services.
Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said Ukraine had destroyed the road bridge in the region's Glushkovsky district.
State news agency TASS, citing Russian security officials, said that could hinder the ongoing relocation of the frontier district's roughly 20,000 inhabitants.
A mass evacuation is underway in the Glushkov district, home to 20,000 people, following a swift Ukrainian incursion into the region.
Ukrainian officials said that it had installed a military commandant in the area it controlled, even as Russia intensified its offensives in Ukraine's east.
Russia's defence ministry for its part said it had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks along the Kursk frontline.
Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday that his forces were advancing between one and three kilometres in some areas in the Kursk region.
Ukraine has said it has taken control of 82 settlements over an area of 1150 square kilometres in the region after it launched a major cross-border attack on August 6.
Briefing President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via video link, Syrskyi reported fighting in the area of Malaya Loknya, 11.5km from the Ukrainian border.
"In general, the situation is under control, everything is carried out following the plan," Syrskyi said in a video published by Zelenskiy on Telegram.
He said he hoped the fighting near Malaya Loknya would allow the Ukrainian military to capture "many prisoners".
Ukrainian officials reported that hundreds of Russian troops had been taken prisoners during the incursion, expressing hope it would speed up the swapping of Ukrainian fighters held in Russian captivity.
"The Kursk region operation - we are strengthening our positions and replenishing 'exchange fund' for Ukraine," Zelenskiy said on social media platform X.
Syrskyi added that intense fighting continued in Ukraine's frontline in the east, in particular in Toretsk and the strategic hub of Pokrovsk areas.
Military authorities in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk urged civilians to leave quickly because the Russian army was closing in.
Pokrovsk officials said in a Telegram post that Russian troops are "advancing at a fast pace. With every passing day there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions".
Ukrainian troops have been trying to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine by launching its cross-border incursion.
But Zelenskiy warned that Pokrovsk and other nearby towns in the Donetsk region were "facing the most intense Russian assaults".
with AP
