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Dramatic moment Ukrainian special forces blow up Russian pontoon bridge with Himars strike in latest Kursk battlefield victory - as rattled Putin accuses Kyiv of trying to attack nuclear station
This is the moment Ukrainian troops destroyed a pontoon bridge in the Kursk region with a HIMARS strike, which could leave thousands of Russian troops stranded.
The pontoon crossing in the border region was built by Putin's army after Ukrainian forces destroyed at least three permanent bridges over western Russia's Seim River in recent attacks.
Video footage showed drones chasing down trucks and blowing them up. Drones can also be seen crashing into stationary military vehicles, while aerial footage showed the pontoon bridge being decimated.
The footage came as Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of trying to strike a nuclear power plant in Kursk, where it is carrying out the first foreign invasion of Russia since the Second World War.
Ukraine has not yet commented on the claims of the alleged strike, which Putin did not provide evidence for when relaying them to senior Kremlin officials today.
Alexei Smirnov, acting governor of the Kursk region, told Putin at the same meeting that the situation at the Kursk nuclear power station was stable.
Dramatic footage showed Ukrainian troops striking a pontoon bridge in the Kursk region
Vladimir Putin (pictured) accused Ukrainian troops of targeting a nuclear power plant
Putin said Ukraine tried to strike Kursk Nuclear Power plant (pictured)
The Kursk plant is one of Russia's top nuclear power stations. It supplies about half of the electricity used in the Black Earth region of southern Russia.
The plant has four Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK-1000 reactors - the same design as those at the Chernobyl nuclear plant which in 1986, when part of the Soviet Union, became the scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
There are an estimated 2-3,000 Russian troops in the region who are slowly being surrounded by Ukraine.
The daring Ukrainian foray into the Kursk region has rattled the Kremlin, showing Russia's vulnerability and shattered President Vladimir Putin's efforts to pretend that the country has been largely unaffected by the invasion.
Authorities in Kursk began to put up concrete shelters at bus stops and other locations around the city to protect it from shelling and plan similar work in Zheleznogorsk and Kurchatov, where the Kursk nuclear power plant is located, the region's acting Gov. Alexei Smirnov said on his Telegram channel.
Putin said in a video call with officials that he has ordered the creation of self-defense units in Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
Footage showed the bridge being blown up by strikes
Drones were seen smashing into military vehicles
There are reported 2-3,000 troops in the area that was attacked
It is believed Ukraine used a HIMARS missile to strike the pontoon bridge
Smirnov reported to Putin that over 133,000 people have left areas affected by the fighting in the Kursk region, while more than 19,000 have stayed.
The governor of Bryansk, another Russian region bordering Ukraine, said authorities in the region have conducted training for emergency evacuation from border areas in case it is needed.
But Ukraine's capture of Russian territory comes as Ukraine continues to lose ground in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that its military has claimed control of the village of Mezhove in Donetsk, part of the industrial Donbas region which Moscow seeks to take entirely.
Ukraine's push into Russia marks the first capture of Russian territory since World War II.