Ukrainian forces on Wednesday destroyed a bridge key to resupplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Russia’s foreign minister said Moscow was trying to consolidate its territorial gains. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state-run RT television and RIA Novosti news agency that Russia had expanded its “special military operation” from eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces to include Kherson and Zaporizhia regions and other occupied territories . Lavrov’s remarks and the Ukrainian missile attack on the strategically important bridge in the Kherson region signaled that the nearly five-month-old war is likely to widen again after being fought 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, repeating Moscow’s earlier claims that the United States and Britain were encouraging Ukraine to expand hostilities. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and quickly seized some territory, but withdrew from the capital region and the north in late March to focus on capturing Donetsk and Luhansk, where Moscow’s separatists control much of the territory from 2014. As Russian forces gained control of more towns in the two eastern provinces, which together make up Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region, Ukrainian officials reported plans for a counteroffensive to retake Russian-held areas in the south. Ukraine’s strike on the Dnipro River bridge appeared to be aimed at loosening Russia’s grip on the southern Kherson region. Wednesday’s attack on the bridge was the second in as many days. 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 km (0.9 mi) long bridge is the main river crossing in the Kherson region. Knocking it out would make it difficult for the Russian military to continue to supply its forces there. Stremusov said that due to the damage to the bridge, floating crossings will be built over the river, which is also known as the Dnieper. The Moscow-appointed head of the Kherson administration, Vladimir Saldo, said in a video message that passenger vehicles could continue to cross the bridge, but truck traffic was halted. He said trucks could cross the river using a dam 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. Early in the war, Russian troops quickly seized the Kherson region just north of the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014. They faced Ukrainian counterattacks but largely held their ground. Kherson – the site of a major shipbuilding industry at the confluence of the Dnipro River and the Black Sea near Russian-annexed Crimea – is one of several areas that a US administration spokesman said Russia is now trying to take over. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday that US intelligence officials have gathered “ample” new evidence that Russia is formally seeking to annex additional Ukrainian territory and could be conducting a “fake” public vote in September. Russia is looking at Kherson and Zaporizhia, as well as the entire Donbas region. Lavrov claimed that the US was preventing Ukraine from participating in talks on a possible settlement with Russia. “They are keeping them from any constructive steps and not only drawing weapons, but forcing them to use those weapons in an increasingly dangerous way,” the Russian minister said. Authorities based in Russia claimed on Wednesday that Ukraine’s military had used drones to attack the Zaporizhzhia 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. 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 stuck fighting in the Donbas region, where they have made slow gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance. The Russian military has used long-range missiles to hit targets in all parts of Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians. Ukraine’s presidential office said at least 13 civilians were killed and 40 others wounded by Russian shelling across the country in a 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday, at least three people were killed when Russia bombarded the northeastern city of Kharkiv with Hurricane salvo missile systems, authorities said. 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 during the war of launching attacks across the border into Russian territory. Another such report came on Wednesday, when Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov told Telegram that Ukrainian forces had fired on two border villages. Most villagers had previously been 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. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a gathering of defense leaders on Wednesday that Ukraine is effectively using US-supplied missile launchers on the battlefield. Austin said the Pentagon plans to provide the Ukrainian military with four more high-mobility artillery rocket launchers, bringing the total to 16. The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles that can reach targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles ). 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 member states cut gas use by 15% in the coming months to ensure that any complete Russian gas cut does not cause an unmanageable winter shutdown. 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. 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.
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