“We are achieving our goals” –

“We are achieving our goals. We have received another replenishment of the exchange fund (prisoners of war) for our country.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented with these words on the military offensive that Kiev has been carrying out for two weeks on Russian territory. The president’s words were followed by statements by the commander of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrsky: “We are achieving new results in the Kursk region and have replenished the exchange fund.” The words of the president and the top of the military apparatus in Kiev come after Ukrainian forces struck and damaged a third bridge over the Seym River, near the village of Karyzh, in the Russian region of Kursk.

The attack on the infrastructure, which came after the destruction of two other bridges over the same river, marks one of Kiev’s greatest successes on Russian soil. Its damage significantly limits Moscow’s military logistics throughout the region, where Russian forces are still struggling to repel the Ukrainian offensive. The Kremlin’s reaction was not long in coming, following the attack, when it announced, through one of Vladimir Putin’s spokesmen, Yuri Ushakov, that Moscow is not ready to sit down at the negotiating table at the moment. According to the Washington Post, these were supposed to be held in Qatar and were supposed to put an end to attacks on energy and electricity infrastructure by both sides.