Ukraine said Monday it blew up a rail bridge in the Samara region in southwestern Russia.
Ukraine’s military intelligence said the attack targeted the supports of a bridge over the Chapaevka River.
The agency said Russia had used the bridge to transport military cargo.
Russia’s railway operator reported an incident in the Samara region, saying there were no casualties but that service had been suspended in the area.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an appeal Sunday to Western nations to supply delayed aid to Ukraine, which is defending itself against Russian onslaughts despite a shortage of ammunition.
“If this does not happen, it will become one of the most disgraceful pages in history – if America or Europe are defeated by Iranian ‘Shahed’ drones or Russian fighter jets. Russian evil should not be encouraged by weak decisions, delays in deliveries or hesitation,” he said, referring to the stalled U.S. aid package for Ukraine due to political wrangling in the U.S. Congress.
“It is simply impossible to explain how the hardships of a bleeding country can be used in domestic political struggles,” Zelenskyy added during his Sunday night video address.
Zelenskyy’s strident tone in his address revealed his frustration as the death toll in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa rose to 12 people, including five children, Sunday, after a Russian drone struck an apartment block there Saturday.
“Russia has made Ukrainian children its military targets,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, earlier Sunday, after the bodies of three children were pulled from the rubble.
Odesa regional Governor Oleh Kiper, writing on Telegram, said rescue teams working late Sunday had found additional bodies. Earlier in the day recovery teams pulled the bodies of a mother and baby out of the rubble.
It has now been more than two months since the U.S. last sent military supplies to Ukraine. In Washington, officials are viewing the shortage of weapons and ammunition in Ukraine and the drop off in U.S. supply shipments with increasing alarm.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to bring to a vote the $95 billion foreign aid package passed by the Senate that includes a crucial $60 billion in aid for Ukraine. That decision could stall the package for weeks after an already monthslong wait in Congress.
"We are waiting for supplies that are vitally necessary, we are waiting, in particular, for an American solution," Zelenskyy said Sunday in his evening address.
Russia had lost 15 military aircraft since the beginning of February, he added. “The more opportunities we have to shoot down Russian aircraft ... the more Ukrainian lives will be saved," Zelenskyy added in his Sunday evening address.
U.S. Defense Department officials are discussing options that could include tapping existing Pentagon stockpiles before Congress approves funding to replenish them, according to Sen. Jack Reed, the chairperson of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
