Russia struggles to respond to Ukraine’s incursion as advancing forces destroy key bridges and war potential

Ukrainian forces say they’ve blown up a second strategically-significant bridge in the Kursk region of Russia as Kyiv continues its incursion, while Moscow has yet to mount a robust response to the ambitious cross-border operation.

As many as 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers are taking part in the incursion into Russian territory that began almost two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reports. Kyiv claims it has taken control of 82 settlements in the region over an area of 1,150 square kilometers (444 square miles) since the border raid began.

Ukrainian forces have concentrated a number of their assaults on key transport and fuel infrastructure in Kursk, in a bid to make it harder for Russia to resource and resupply its troops fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Last Friday, Ukraine said its forces had destroyed a key bridge over the Seym river in Kursk, with the bridge reportedly used to transport equipment to the front line. Russian officials confirmed the attack took place and said the bridge’s destruction would hamper efforts to continue evacuating thousands of citizens out of Kursk.

On Saturday night, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil depot in the Rostov region that supplies oil to the Russian military. Ukraine’s General Staff commented on the attack that “measures to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian Federation continue.”

Ukraine’s air force on Sunday claimed it had destroyed a second bridge in Kursk, which Russia used to supply its troops. Aerial footage posted on social media purported to show the blast creating a large hole in the bridge in Zvannoe. CNBC could not independently verify the footage.

“Minus one more bridge,” Ukrainian Air Force commander Lt Gen Mykola Oleschuk commented on Telegram.

Ukraine’s air force “continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precise strikes from the air, which significantly affects the course of hostilities,” he added, in comments translated by NBC News.

Russia has yet to mount a robust counter-offensive against the Ukrainian incursion, and even Russian military bloggers have criticized the military’s failure to anticipate the incursion, and the sluggish response to the operation.

Defense analysts say that the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk continues to force Russia to redeploy forces from elsewhere in the theater of war, and analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank noted that it’s likely that “subsequent phases of fighting within Russia will require more Russian manpower and materiel commitments to the area.”

ISW analysts further said Sunday that Russian redeployments to Kursk have allowed their forces to slow the initially rapid Ukrainian gains in the region and to start containing the extent of the Ukrainian offensive.

However, they stressed, “containment is only the first and likely least resource-intensive phase of the Russian response in Kursk.”

“Russian forces will likely launch a concerted counteroffensive effort to retake territory in Kursk Oblast [region] that Ukrainian forces have seized, although it is too early to assess when Russian forces will stop Ukrainian advances in Kursk Oblast completely and seize the battlefield initiative to launch such an effort,” the ISW said.

“This likely future Russian counteroffensive effort will very likely require Russia to commit even more manpower, equipment, and materiel to Kursk,” the ISW added, outlining that the exact extent of the elements needed for sustained counteroffensives to push Ukrainian forces back across the border will depend on how heavily Kyiv’s military defends occupied positions in Russia.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Ukraine’s primary aim was to destroy “Russian war potential” and to create a “buffer zone” to prevent Russian attacks on its border regions.

“It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

“Everything that inflicts losses on the Russian army, Russian state, their military-industrial complex, and their economy helps prevent the war from expanding and brings us closer to a just end to this aggression – a just peace for Ukraine,” he added.

The Ukrainian president said he had been briefed on the situation in Kursk by the military’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and implied that arming of Ukrainian units operating in the Russian region was proving challenging.

He also called on Western allies to transfer weapons and ammunition pledged in military aid packages as quickly as possible to Ukraine.

“Our guys are doing great on all fronts. However, there is a need for faster delivery of supplies from our partners. We strongly ask for this. There are no vacations in war. Decisions are needed, as is timely logistics for the announced aid packages,” Zelenskyy said.