The third bridge across the Seym River in the Glushkovsky District of the Kursk Region was destroyed. The structure connecting the banks near the village of Karizh collapsed on the morning of August 19th, as reported by russian military bloggers and mass media.
Previously, the Ukrainian Defense Forces took down two other bridges in this region, thus disconnecting the territory to the south of the river from potential reinforcements or supplies. Now, the operational situation looks like this:
Read more: Ukrainian Air Force Unveils Footage of Bridge Destruction in Kursk Region
With all three bridges in the area destroyed, the russian forces in the rear have no major crossings over Seym left which means most of the Glushkovsky district is now sandwiched between the russian territories occupied by Ukrainian troops, the state border, and the river. For context, this area spans for about 600 square kilometers, approximately equal to how much is currently controlled by the Defense Forces of Ukraine, according to DeepStateUA.
However, this does not mean that the russian troops are going to immediately surrender. The mentioned milbloggers have already begun to share the narrative that the destruction of bridges is not a problem at all because pontoon crossings have already been established. On a note from Defense Express, publicly available satellite imagery from Sentinel, ESA, confirms their statements. At least one pontoon crossing was spotted near Glushkovo village on August 16th.
Objectively speaking, building more pontoon crossings across Seym should not be difficult for the russian forces, the river's width in this area varies between 30 and 80 meters. Still, any pontoon crossing is a much more vulnerable bottleneck of logistics.
For a reminder, for the two earlier instances, Ukraine actively used tactical aviation to destroy these bridges, in particular, the one next to Zvannoye village collapsed after a successful attack with precision-guided weapons utilized by the Ukrainian Air Force.
Read more: Ukrainian Paratroopers Captured T-90M Tank in Kursk Oblast
