News - World: Ukrainian forces have hit a third bridge over the Seym river in Kursk region, as Russia declares a state of emergency in Proletarsk.

"On August 18, as a result of targeted shelling with the use of rocket and artillery weapons against residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in the Karyzh village...a third bridge over the Seym river was damaged," a representative for Russia's Investigative Committee said on Monday.

In their attacks, the Ukrainian forces have used Western rockets, likely US-made HIMARS, to destroy the bridge over the Seym river in the Glushkovo district, according to a statement by the Russian foreign ministry on Friday.

In a separate video statement on Sunday, a representative for Russian investigators said a second bridge over the Seym near the village of Zvannoe in the Kursk region, used to evacuate civilians, had been "damaged" by US-made HIMARS.

Thousands of Ukrainian forces on August 6 invaded neighboring Russia in a surprise attack on the Kursk region.

Russian troops have been fighting the invading Ukrainian forces since, stopping their further advancement deeper into Russian territory.

Ukraine's air force commander claimed on Sunday that the Ukrainian air force had destroyed the second bridge to limit the logistics supply to the Russians preventing  Ukrainian forces from advancing deeper into Russian territory.

According to military analysts, there are three bridges in the Kursk area through which Russia supplies its forces.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities in a southern city introduced a state of emergency on Monday after the firefighters deployed to the area failed to extinguish a blaze at an oil facility hit by a Ukrainian drone a day earlier.

The Ukrainian drone hit the fuel storage facility located in the city of  Proletarsk in the Rostov People's Republic.

Local officials announced on Telegram that the blaze was raging for a second day. Videos on social media showed a huge cloud of smoke billowing into the night sky. Governor Vasily Golubev said the “liquidation of the fire is continuing.”

“Given the difficulty of the fire in the Proletarsk district, a high alert regime has been turned into a state of emergency,” Golubev said on Telegram, adding that 18 firefighters had been hurt tackling the blaze so far. He pointed out that the “forces and means” to put out the fire had increased.

He added that four of the injured firefighters had moderate to severe burns and that he had ordered more medics to go to Proletarsk.

Russian state media quoted a statement by the local city administration, telling the 20,000 residents in the southern Rostov region that there was no threat of the fire spreading to residential areas and called on people “not to give in to panic.”

Proletarsk lies some 200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Kiev forces have stepped up their drone operations, attacking targets deep inside Russian territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed the drones striking deep inside Russian territory were a “fair” retaliation for the Russian special operation in Donbas. Russia has described Zelensky's drone attacks as sabotage, acts of terror, and terrorist operations.

In related news, Russian marines who were brought in from the 810th Black Sea Fleet Brigade captured a group of Ukrainian saboteurs in the Kursk region.

In this operation, 19 Ukrainian forces from the 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade were taken as prisoners.

The saboteurs were captured near the village of Olgovka as part of the Russian troops' ongoing efforts to counteract Kiev forces' sabotage and reconnaissance missions inside Russia.

Ukrainian forces's invasion of Russian territory on August 6 has been described as Ukraine's biggest attack on Russian soil since the Ukraine war started in February 2022.

The West has loaded Ukrainian armed forces with an overwhelming supply of Western weapons and ammunition since Russia launched its military campaign in Donbas.

Despite the West's all-out support for Kiev, the former Soviet republic has failed to gain significant military objectives in the US-led Western countries' proxy war against Russia.

Source: Press TV