Russia says Ukraine used US rockets in Kursk, Kiev reports incursion gains

Ukraine's air defences shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, while Russia's foreign ministry accused Ukraine of using US-made HIMARS to destroy a bridge 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, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said late on 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."

Ukraine's air defences, on the other hand, shot down all 14 Russian drones fired in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday.

The air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that the Shahed drones were downed over six Ukrainian regions in the south and centre of the country.

Kiev claims control

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday that Kiev's forces were advancing between 1 and 3 kilometres in some areas in the Kursk region, 11 days since beginning an incursion into Russia.

Kiev has claimed to have taken control of 82 settlements in the region, covering an area of 1,150 square kilometres, since August 6.

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 Kiev's "terrorist invasion" would not change the course of the war.

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 US weaponry, officials in Washington said.