MOSCOW — Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Ukraine used Western rockets, likely U.S.-made HIMARS, to destroy a bridge over the Seym River in the Kursk region, killing volunteers trying to evacuate civilians.

“For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, probably American HIMARS,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said late Friday on the Telegram messaging app.

“As a result of the attack on the bridge over the Seym River in the Glushkovo district, it was completely destroyed, and volunteers who were assisting the evacuated civilian population were killed,” she said.

There was no indication of how many volunteers were killed in Friday’s attack.

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Kyiv’s forces had advanced between 1 and 3 kilometers (up to 1.8 miles) in some areas in the Kursk region on Friday, 11 days since beginning an incursion into the western Russian territory.

Kyiv claimed to have taken control of 82 settlements over 1,150 square kilometers (444 square miles) in the region since August 6.

Russia’s Defense Ministry, cited by the Interfax news agency, said on Saturday that Russian forces repelled several Ukrainian attacks in the Kursk region, but it did not report recapturing any territory.

It said Ukrainian forces had unsuccessfully attempted to advance towards the villages of Kauchuk and Alekseyevskiy, which lie roughly halfway between the Ukrainian border and the Kursk nuclear power plant.

In a separate statement, the ministry accused Ukraine of planning to attack the plant in a false flag operation.

Reuters could not independently verify either side’s battlefield accounts.

Russia has accused the West of supporting and encouraging Ukraine’s first ground offensive on Russian territory and said that Kyiv’s “terrorist invasion” would not change the course of the war.

The U.S. HIMARS rockets provided to Ukraine have a range of up to about 80 kilometers (50 miles).

The United States, which has said it cannot allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to win the war he launched in February 2022, so far deems the surprise incursion a protective move that justifies the use of U.S. weaponry, according to officials in Washington.
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ISTANBUL — Firefighters were tackling blazes across Turkey on Friday as dry, hot and windy weather conditions led to a series of fires, including one that threatened World War I memorials and graves at the Gallipoli battle site.

At the peninsula where an Allied landing was beaten back by Ottoman troops in a yearlong campaign in 1915, the flames reached Canterbury Cemetery, where soldiers from New Zealand are interred.

Images of the site in northwest Turkey showed soot-blackened gravestones in a scorched garden looking out over the Aegean Sea.

The fire was brought under control by Friday. Officials said it was started by a spark from electricity lines that spread through forested areas.

Elsewhere, however, the continuous work of emergency crews stretched over days and nights.

On the west coast, a fire threatened houses on the outskirts of Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, where a blaze broke out in woods Thursday night. Residents fled their homes as ash fell around them.

“The fire in the Dogancay region unfortunately reached residential areas due to the wind. We want our citizens living in the region to evacuate their homes as soon as possible,” District Mayor Irfan Onal posted on social media.

In Manisa Province, a fire was burning for the third day in Gordes, a rural wooded district in Turkey’s northwest. Nearly 80 homes were evacuated and most buildings in the village of Karayakup suffered severe fire damage, the Demiroren News Agency reported.

Meanwhile, in nearby Bolu, firefighters were working for a second day to put out a blaze.

Turkey has mobilized dozens of aircraft, hundreds of vehicles and thousands of personnel to fight the fires. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli warned of a heightened risk of wildfires over the weekend due to low humidity, high winds and high temperatures.

“Our intervention capability and capacity is limited to a certain point,” he told journalists. “It is not possible to emerge victorious from this struggle without the support of our citizens. Therefore, I request high-level sensitivity especially in these three days.”

The General Directorate of Forestry warned people not to light fires outside for the next 10 days due to the current weather conditions across western Turkey, warning of a 70% greater risk of wildfires.

Earlier this week, firefighters in neighboring Greece fought a fire that burned an area almost twice the size of Manhattan. The fire north of Athens gutted scores of homes before it was contained Tuesday. One person was killed.

In June, a fire spread through settlements in southeast Turkey, killing 11 people and leaving dozens of others requiring medical treatment.
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Help for Ukraine comes not only from international organizations, foreign governments and large foundations, but also from ordinary citizens across the globe. Among them – a group of individuals in Norfolk, England, who have been helping Ukrainians since the start of Russia’s invasion. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Video: Yuriy Dankevych
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine shot down all five Russia-launched drones during an overnight attack, the country’s air force said Friday.

Russian forces also used three ballistic Iskander-M missiles during the attack, according to the air force’s statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia used three Shahed-type drones and two drones of an unidentified type for the attack, it said.

Reuters previously reported that Russia turned to using cheaply made drones in some of its attacks on Ukraine to try to identify air defenses and act as decoys.

The governors of Kyiv and Kirovohrad regions reported no damage or casualties following the attack.

Air defense worked in the capital Kyiv overnight with no damage reported by the city’s authorities.

On Thursday, the military turned on the air alerts four times to notify the city’s residents about possible attacks.

The air alert has come on over 1,200 times in Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion, authorities said on Friday.
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More than two and a half years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, Germany is considering slashing military assistance to Kyiv by 50%. Berlin is the European Union’s largest donor of military aid to Ukraine and second only to the United States, but domestic politics are casting doubt on that role. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in Berlin.
Camera: Ricardo Marquina 
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Azerbaijan and Armenia are in an arms race that threatens to undermine U.S.-backed peace talks between the two Caucasus countries. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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