UPDATE - Ukraine claims it blew up railway bridge in Russia’s Samara region

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT ON SEPARATE OPERATION AGAINST SERVERS OF RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukraine claimed on Monday that it blew up a railway bridge in Russia’s Samara region bordering Kazakhstan, which it alleged was used in transporting military cargo.

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) said in a Telegram statement that the bridge located over the Chapayevka River, a tributary of the Volga River, the longest in Europe, was damaged early in the day as a result of a detonation in its power structures.

It claimed that the bridge was used by Russia to transport military cargo, particularly ammunition produced by the JSC Polimer in the town of Chapayevsk, situated approximately 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) east of Ukraine's capital Kyiv.

“Given the nature of the damage to the railway bridge, its use will be impossible for a long time,” it concluded.

In an earlier statement, the HUR also claimed that it "successfully" conducted a cyberattack against the servers of the Russian Defense Ministry, during which it collected "an array of secret official documents," as well as information protection and encryption software.

The statement said that the documents it obtained are comprised of orders and reports, as well as other documents that circulated within "structural units of the Russian security agency."

"The information obtained allows us to establish the complete structure of the system of the Russian Ministry of Defense and its units," the statement further said, claiming that it also obtained official documents belonging to Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov.

Russian authorities have not yet commented on the claims, and independent verification of Ukraine's claims is difficult due to the ongoing war.