Russia-Ukraine war live: boat targeting Crimea bridge destroyed, Moscow says; Kyiv claims advances in south | Ukraine

Russia risks splitting its troops as it seeks to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough in Ukraine’s south, the UK Ministry of Defence says.

In its latest intelligent update, the ministry said Ukrainian forces continued to take offensive action on the Orikhiv axis in southern Ukraine, with units reaching the first Russian main defensive line.

“Russian forces, primarily composed of the 58 combined arms army and Russian airborne forces elements, seek to halt the Ukrainian counteroffensive whilst maintaining their own offensive on the northern axis around Kupiansk,” said the ministry’s update, posted on X/Twitter.

It said Russian forces were probably seeking to distract Ukraine from its counteroffensive, forcing it to divide its forces between Orikhiv and Kupiansk.

Given that Russia has made modest gains near Kupiansk since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in June, they are highly likely seeking to capitalise on these by continuing to resource the axis.

However, Russia risks dividing its forces as it seeks to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough.

Russia’s defence ministry said early on Saturday that its forces had destroyed an unmanned Ukrainian boat being used in an attempt to attack the bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland.

Reuters reports the ministry said the vessel had been “spotted and destroyed in time off the Black Sea coast”.

On Friday about 11.15pm (2015 GMT) Ukraine tried to launch a strike with the “half-loaded” boat”, the ministry said on Telegram.

Agence France-Presse quotes the ministry as saying three Ukrainian naval drones targeting the bridge had also been destroyed.

The Crimea bridge, which was completed in 2018, four years after Russia occupied and annexed the peninsula from Ukraine, has come under repeated attack during Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials, who usually say little or nothing about attacks on Russian targets but have said destroying Russian infrastructure is vital for Ukraine’s war effort.

Ukraine claimed responsibility for an attack in July on the bridge by what has been described as a sea drone. Two people died in the strike.

The 19km (12-mile) bridge across the Kerch Strait was badly damaged in October 2022 in an explosion that Russian officials said was caused by a truck that blew up while crossing the bridge.

Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton and here’s an overview of the latest developments.

Russia’s defence ministry said early on Saturday that its forces had destroyed an unmanned Ukrainian boat being used in an attempt to attack the bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland.

The ministry said the attempt was made with the “half-loaded” boat late on Friday but it was seen and destroyed, as were three naval drones, off the Black Sea coast.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials. The bridge has come under repeated attack during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have made “notable progress” in their southern offensive over the past three days, a leading US security official has said.

Kyiv said its troops had broken through Russia’s first line of defences in several places.

More on those stories shortly. In other news:

• The Biden administration will for the first time send controversial armour-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine, according to a document seen by Reuters and separately confirmed by two US officials. The rounds, which could help destroy Russian tanks, are part of a new military aid package for Ukraine – which one of the officials put as worth between $240m and $375m – set to be unveiled in the next week.

• Ukraine has made “notable progress” in its southern offensive over the past 72 hours, a top US security official has said, as Kyiv said its troops had broken through Russia’s first line of defences in several places. In Washington, national security council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday the US had “noted over the last 72 hours or so some notable progress by Ukrainian armed forces … in that southern line of advance coming out of the Zaporizhzhia area”.

• A man was killed in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Friday and three people were injured earlier in a missile attack in the central region of Vinnytsia overnight, Ukrainian authorities said.

• Russia said it had captured several strategic heights near Kupiansk, an eastern Ukrainian city where Moscow’s troops stepped up the pressure in August.

• A recent drone attack on an airport in north-western Russia which damaged several transport planes was carried out from within Russian territory, Ukraine’s military intelligence said.

• President Vladimir Putin said Russia planned to allocate 1.9tn roubles (£15.6bn/$19.7bn) from the federal budget over the next two-and-a-half years to the development of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow last year declared to be part of its territory.

• Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed 281 Ukrainian drones over the past week, including 29 over the western regions of Russia, indicating the scale of the drone war now underway between Russia and Ukraine.

• More than 2,000 troops from a Russia-led security alliance have opened military exercises in parts of Belarus near the borders of Nato countries.

• Poland has denied a military helicopter breached Belarus’s airspace, on Friday calling Minsk’s claims “lies and provocations” at a time of escalating tensions between the neighbours. Belarus said the incident took place over the Grodno region on the border.

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to attend the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN in New York this month and take part in a UN security council meeting on Ukraine.

• Denmark said on Friday it had told Russia to reduce the number of staff at its Copenhagen embassy following Russian requests for visas for “intelligence officers”.

• Two cargo vessels had left a port near Odesa, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Friday – the third and fourth to transit from deep-water Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea since Russia withdrew from a safe-passage deal for grain ships.

• Russia’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles have been put on combat duty, state news agency RIA reported the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos as saying on Friday. The missiles are capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads.

• The Kremlin said it took a negative view of British defence contractor BAE Systems’ decision to establish itself in Ukraine. It also said on Friday that any facilities producing weapons used against Russia would become targets for Moscow’s military.

• Russia will block the final declaration of this month’s G20 summit unless it reflects Moscow’s position on Ukraine and other crises, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday, which will leave participants to issue a non-binding or partial communiqué.

• US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with the heads of Ukrainian anti-corruption institutions on Friday and reiterated American support for anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine, the White House said.

• Several Swedish lawmakers said on Friday they would boycott this year’s Nobel Prize ceremonies after the private foundation that administers the awards changed its policy and invited Russia, Belarus and Iran, which had previously been barred from attending.