MOSCOW: Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday that Russian troops fighting in the Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia regions of southern Ukraine could receive all the supplies they needed via existing land and sea corridors, after a bridge linking Russia to Crimea was badly damaged by a blast.

Saturday’s explosion on the road-and-rail bridge, which has been used to take Russian men and military supplies through the peninsula into other parts of southern Ukraine, brought down sections of road taking traffic in one direction and also damaged railway tracks.

Russia-backed forces claim gains near Bakhmut in east Ukraine