A former American NATO commander says Ukraine's ongoing incursion into Russia shows Moscow can't "do much" about it — as reports Tuesday said more than 122,000 residents have fled the region and Ukraine damaged its last key bridge.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a staunch supporter of Ukrainian resistance to Russia's February 2022 invasion, said on social media that America has "failed to help Ukraine win because of excessive fear that Russia might escalate."
"UAF has shown that Russia can't/wont do much," Hodges wrote on X Monday, using an abbreviation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
UAF are exposing our continued self-deterrence. We've failed to help Ukraine win because of excessive fear that Russia might escalate. UAF has shown that Russia can't/wont do much. https://t.co/ffQG7zhCc3
— Ben Hodges (@general_ben) August 19, 2024
Hodges' comments were followed Tuesday by a report that said more than 122,000 residents have abandoned their homes in Russia's Kursk region since Ukraine launched a cross-border offensive there on Aug. 6.
Russia's Tass news agency, also said the refugees were being housed in "temporary accommodation centers" spread across 24 regions, citing Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Hours later, the Associated Press reported that Ukrainian forces had damaged the last of three bridges over the Seym River in Kursk.
"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," an unidentified representative of Russia's Investigative Committee said in a video clip posted on the Telegram messaging website, AP said.
Russian military bloggers and pro-war users of Telegram also said the third bridge had been damaged, according to AP.
The development raises the possibility that Russian troops could wind up trapped between the Seym and advancing Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine's top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said its army controlled 488 square miles of Russian territory and 93 settlements, up from 386 square miles a week ago.
Syrsko later met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy, who said in a video address afterward that Ukraine was achieving "set goals" in Kursk.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy said for the first time that Ukraine was trying to create a demilitarized buffer zone there to keep Russia from launching cross-border attacks.
