The Russian Foreign Ministry said Ukraine used Western missile systems to destroy a bridge over the Seym River in the Kursk region.

“For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made missile launchers, probably the US HIMARS type,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, wrote on Telegram.

She said the attack “completely destroyed” the bridge in Glushkovo district and that volunteers helping civilians evacuate their homes in the area were killed. The report could not be independently verified.

Ukraine’s surprise military invasion of the neighboring Kursk region seemed to have taken Moscow by surprise.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s cross-border incursion was aimed at stopping Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region and gaining an advantage in possible future peace talks.

Ukrainian air defense systems shot down all 14 Russian drones fired during a nighttime attack, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Saturday.

The Air Force wrote on Telegram that it had shot down Shahed drones that had attacked six Ukrainian regions in the south and center of the country.

Russia is not yet ready for peace talks with Ukraine, said the German ambassador in Moscow.

“At present, the Russian side is not showing any willingness to negotiate, but is insisting on exaggerated preconditions,” said Alexander Graf Lambsdorff Bonn General Advertiser in comments published on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that he is only prepared to hold talks with Ukraine if Ukrainian troops withdraw from the areas illegally annexed by Russia. “Then it will be clear that he is not serious,” said Lambsdorff.

He added: “One day Russia must also realise that it is achieving far less with this war than it set out to do at the outset, that it is doing itself serious damage internationally and that it is in a war economy that is completely overheated and will not be sustainable.”

rm/sri (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)