KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian forces on Wednesday destroyed a bridge key to resupplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Russia’s foreign minister said Moscow would consolidate its territorial gains.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state-run RT television and RIA Novosti news agency that Russia plans to maintain control over wider areas beyond eastern Ukraine, including Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, and will make more gains elsewhere.
Lavrov’s remarks and the Ukrainian missile attack on the strategically important bridge in the Kherson region indicated that the nearly five-month war could widen after it has been raging mainly in eastern Ukraine since April.
Russia’s top diplomat noted that when Russia and Ukraine discussed a possible deal to end the conflict in March, “our readiness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on the geography of March 2022.”
“Now it’s a different geography,” Lavrov said, echoing Moscow’s claims that the United States and Britain are encouraging Ukraine to expand hostilities.
With Western countries providing Ukraine with longer-range weapons, Lavrov said that “Russia’s geographic tasks will be pushed even further from the current line because we cannot allow the part of Ukraine under Zelensky’s control or whoever comes to to succeed him, to have weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territories of those republics that have declared their independence.”
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and quickly seized territory, but withdrew from the capital region and the north to focus on seizing Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which have been partially controlled by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.
As Russian forces captured more of the two provinces, which together make up Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region, Ukrainian officials planned a counteroffensive to retake Russian-held areas in the south.
Ukraine’s strike on the Dnipro River bridge, its second in as many days, appeared to be aimed at loosening Russia’s grip on the southern Kherson region.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of an interim, Russian-installed command in charge of the region, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge using US-supplied HIMARS multiple missile launchers.  The 1.4 kilometer (0.9 mi) bridge is the main river crossing in the Kherson region and the Russian military uses it to supply its forces.  Stremusov said that due to the damage to the bridge, floats will be built over the river, also known as the Dnieper.
The head of the Moscow-appointed Kherson administration, Vladimir Saldo, said cars could continue to cross the bridge but trucks could not and could instead use a barrier 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.
Early in the war, Russian troops seized the Kherson region just north of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. They faced Ukrainian counterattacks but largely held their ground.
Kherson – a shipyard at the confluence of the Dnipro River with the Black Sea – is one of several areas that a US administration spokesman said Russia is trying to take over.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday that US intelligence officials have evidence that Russia wants to annex Kherson, Zaporizhia and all of Donbas through referendums as soon as September.
In Zaporizhzhia, Russian-based authorities claimed on Wednesday that Ukraine’s military had used drones to attack the local nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.  Vladimir Rogov, a local official appointed by Moscow, said three Ukrainian attack drones hit the area of ​​the factory with explosives but not its reactor area.  All normal operations continued and no release of radioactivity was detected, he said.  Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported that 11 workers at the plant were injured, four seriously.  The news agency later quoted a Russian military official as saying the attack took place on Monday.
Ukrainian authorities, who in recent months have reported that Russian missiles nearly hit the plant, did not immediately comment on the report.
The bulk of Russian forces are fighting in the Donbass, where they have made slow gains against Ukrainian resistance.  The Russian military has used long-range missiles to strike targets across Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians.
Ukraine’s presidential office said at least 13 civilians were killed and 40 wounded by Russian shelling across the country in a 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Wednesday, at least three more people were killed when Russia bombarded the northeastern city of Kharkiv with Hurricane salvo missile systems.  The victims, who were waiting at a bus stop, were a 69-year-old man, his wife and a 13-year-old boy.
The boy’s 15-year-old sister was injured, according to the Kharkiv District Prosecutor’s Office.  The video shows the boy’s father, apparently in shock, praying over his son’s uncovered body and holding his hand.
Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of cross-border attacks.  Another such report came on Wednesday, when Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov told Telegram that Ukrainian forces had fired on two Russian border villages.
Most villagers had previously evacuated in a state of emergency, but Gladkov said the latest attack killed a man and damaged houses and a village club.
In other developments on Wednesday:
– An Associated Press investigation found that many refugees from Ukraine are forced to embark on a surreal journey to Russia, subjected to human rights abuses along the way, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about their whereabouts.
-U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that Ukraine is effectively using U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers and will provide four more, bringing the total to 16. The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles that can reach targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.
– Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska appealed to US lawmakers during a speech at the US Capitol for more air defense systems to protect her country’s skies.  In her riveting speech on Capitol Hill, Zelenska shared images of bloodied baby carriages and small crumpled bodies left after Russian missile attacks.
– European Union headquarters has suggested that member states cut gas use by 15% in the coming months to ensure that any complete cut in Russian gas supplies does not cause unmanageable winter shutdowns.  While the initial cuts would be voluntary, the European Commission has also requested the power to impose mandatory reductions across the bloc in the event of severe gas shortages or exceptionally high demand.
Zelensky, in a videotaped speech on Wednesday night, said Europe should have reduced its dependence on Russian gas earlier.  “If our position had been heard earlier,” he said, “we would not have had to look for emergency ways to cover the deficit that Russia is artificially creating in the European market.”
– In a sign of the war’s crippling economic impact, the Ukrainian government said it would ask investors to allow the country to defer foreign debt payments for two years.  Leaders of a group of creditors said they agreed to the delay and urged bondholders to do the same.