Moscow: The Russian army announced on Wednesday that it had taken control of a new town in the Sumy region, bordering the northeastern Ukrainian border.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that the village of Kendrativka, located about three kilometers south of the Russian border, had been taken. Moscow confirms that it is working to establish a “buffer zone” in Sumy to prevent Ukrainian incursions, particularly into the neighboring Kursk region of Russia.

In a separate development, Russia confirmed that the attack launched by Ukraine yesterday on the Crimean Bridge, which connects the peninsula annexed by Moscow to Russian territory, did not cause any damage. Russian authorities consider the 19-kilometer-long bridge, which opened in 2018, a symbol of its annexation of Crimea in 2014. The bridge is crucial for the dispatching of troops and military equipment to the peninsula.