Ukrainian forces strike key bridge in Russian-occupied south

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces struck and seriously damaged a bridge Wednesday that is key for supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, a regional official said, as Russian shelling killed civilians including a 13-year-old boy waiting at a bus stop in the embattled country's northeast.

Moscow, meanwhile, made it clear that it wants to consolidate territorial gains it has made in Ukraine since invading on Feb. 24.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency in an interview published Wednesday that Russia has expanded the scope of its “special military operation” from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine — where Russia-backed separatist have been fighting since 2014 — to include the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and other territories.

He noted that when Russia and Ukraine in March discussed a possible deal to end the hostilities, “our readiness to accept the Ukrainian proposal was based on the geography of March 2022.”

“Now it’s a different geography,” he said, as he also repeated earlier claims by Moscow that the U.S. and Britain were expanding the ostilities.

Ukraine sought to loosen Russia's grip on the southern Kherson region by striking a strategically important bridge.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Moscow-backed temporary administration in the region, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge, which crosses the Dnieper River, using U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.

The 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) bridge is the main river crossing in the Kherson region. Knocking it out would make it hard for the Russian military to keep supplying its forces in the region amid repeated Ukrainian attacks.

“The bridge wasn't closed, traffic across it is still...