Ukraine advances in Russia as Moscow mayor accuses Kyiv of ‘one of largest ever’ drone attacks

By Jessie Yeung, Paul P. Murphy, Isaac Yee and Daria Tarasova-Markina, CNN

(CNN) — Ukraine’s bold cross-border advance in Russia has seen troops continue to take out key bridges in the western part of the country, while on Wednesday Moscow’s mayor accused Kyiv of attempting to launch “one of the largest ever” drone attacks on the capital.

Since the Ukrainian incursion began nearly two weeks ago, its forces are inching forward in Kursk and destroying key bridges in an effort to cripple Moscow’s logistical capabilities and disrupt supply routes.

At least two bridges were taken out of action over the Seym River in Kursk last week. Ukraine said it had used “precision airstrikes” for one, and Russia claimed Kyiv had utilized Western rockets for the other.

Afterward, Russia built at least three pontoon bridges – temporary floating ones often used in emergency or wartime situations – across the river, according to satellite imagery from Planet Labs and BlackSky.

Since then, a Ukrainian drone has targeted one of the pontoons, according to a video obtained and geolocated by CNN.

The type of drone used was designed to crash into a target and explode, detonating its warheads and destroying the drone in the process. Compared to traditional, larger military drones that return to base after dropping missiles, these ones are smaller and harder to detect, and can be fired from a distance.

The video shows the drone hitting one of the vehicles used to set up and move the pontoon bridge. Though it’s not clear if the drone destroyed the vehicle, BlackSky satellite imagery on Tuesday showed that the bridge was gone – with large burn scars in the area where it was.

On another section of the river nearby, a new pontoon bridge can be seen stretching across the water in satellite images. A third pontoon bridge was also seen in satellite imagery from the European Space Agency and Planet Labs.

The Kursk offensive has left Russia struggling to shore up its own territory. On Tuesday, Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said its troops had advanced up to 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) through Russian defenses since the start of their surprise assault, capturing 93 settlements.

Russian forces in the area are battling hard against Kyiv’s shock incursion, a Ukrainian commander fighting in Russia’s Kursk region told CNN Wednesday, while claiming his own country’s troops are still making gains.

“Ukrainian troops are still advancing as they used to. We are cleaning up the ground. We are now faced with the fact that enemy subversive groups are trying to ambush us and try to stop us,” Dmytro Kholod, the commander of Ukraine’s “Nightingale” battalion, told CNN in a phone call.

“They no longer surrender by the hundreds. They are trying to shoot and fight back, but they still surrender when we attack them.”

The commander added that Russia has brought in more artillery “and is using it much more than before,” but said Russian forces are failing to hit targets precisely. “They just shell forest belts and settlements where our troops are likely to be concentrated,” Kholod said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the incursion aims to create a “buffer zone” to prevent cross-border attacks by Moscow’s forces, to disrupt Russia’s economy and to “destroy as much Russian war potential as possible.”

On the same day, US Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Russia has so far “really struggled to respond, and you continue to see some Ukrainian advances in that regard” – even as Moscow moves “a small number of forces” into the Kursk region.

“It has certainly demonstrated the creativity and the battlefield prowess of the Ukrainians, but when it comes to what their longer-term objectives are here, that’s something that we’re still discussing with them,” he said.

Ryder would not say where the US is seeing the Russian forces being moved from.

CNN reported last week that Russia had diverted several thousand troops from occupied territory in Ukraine to Kursk.

Russian authorities have also urged residents in the embattled border regions, as well as military and other personnel there, not to use dating apps or social media to prevent Ukrainian forces from gathering intelligence.

“The use of online dating services is strongly discouraged. The enemy actively uses such resources for information gathering,” Russia’s Interior Ministry said in a Telegram post, as part of an advisory issued to residents and troops in the Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod border regions.

It included a long list of recommendations – including not opening hyperlinks in messages from strangers, not streaming videos on roads with military vehicles and removing geotagging on their social media.

Moscow drone attack

Russian authorities also claimed Wednesday that their air defense systems had destroyed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight: including 11 over Moscow, two over the Belgorod border region and two in Kursk.

“This is one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow with drones of all time,” Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a Telegram post Wednesday.

Some of the drones were destroyed over the city of Podolsk, about 38 kilometers (24 miles) south of the Kremlin, Reuters quoted Sobyanin as saying.

Preliminary information so far shows no injuries or damage, Sobyanin was quoted as saying. Reuters could not independently verify his remarks, and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Ukraine has launched drone attacks on the Russian capital before – notably in July 2023 when drones struck two non-residential buildings, including one near the Ministry of Defense headquarters. There was no serious damage or casualties at the time, Sobyanin said afterward.

And in November, Russia said it had foiled more than 20 Ukrainian drone attacks, including on Moscow – which came shortly after Russia launched its largest drone attack against the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale invasion began.

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CNN’s Michael Conte and Oren Liebermann contributed reporting.