United News of Bangladesh

A commercial ship traveling through the Red Sea came under repeated attack Wednesday, leaving the vessel “not under command” in an assault suspected to have been carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels, the British military said. Few details were immediately available about the attack, though it comes during the Houthis' monthslong campaign targeting ships over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The attack saw men on small boats first open fire with small arms some 140 kilometers (90 miles) west of the rebel-held Yemeni port city of Hodeida, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. Three projectiles also hit the ship, it added. It wasn't immediately clear if that meant drones or missiles. “The vessel reports being not under command,” the UKMTO said, likely meaning it lost all power. “No casualties reported.” The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take them hours or even days before their acknowledge one of their assaults. The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sunk two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have been either intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets. The rebels maintain that they have targeted ships linked to Israel, the United States or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran. The Houthis have also launched drones and missiles toward Israel, including an attack on July 19 that killed one person and wounded 10 others in Tel Aviv. Israel responded the next day with airstrikes on the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida that hit fuel depots and electrical stations, killing and wounding a number of people, the rebels say. After the strikes, the Houthis paused their attacks until Aug. 3, when they hit a Liberian-flagged container ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden. A Liberian-flagged oil tanker came under a particularly intense series of attacks, beginning Aug. 8, likely carried out by the rebels. A similar attack happened Aug. 13 as well. As Iran threatens to retaliate against Israel over the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the U.S. military told the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area. America also has ordered the the USS Georgia guided missile submarine into the Mideast, while the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group was in the Gulf of Oman. Additional F-22 fighter jets have flown into the region and the USS Wasp, a large amphibious assault ship carrying F-35 fighter jets, is in the Mediterranean Sea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday the daring military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border. It was the first time Zelenskyy clearly stated the aim of the operation, which was launched on Aug. 6. Previously, he had said the operation aimed to protect communities in the bordering Sumy region from constant shelling. Zelenskyy said “it is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory -– our operation in the Kursk region,” he said in his nightly address. This weekend, Ukraine destroyed a key bridge in the region and struck a second one nearby, disrupting supply lines as it pressed a stunning cross-border incursion that began Aug. 6, officials said. Pro-Kremlin military bloggers acknowledged the destruction of the first bridge on the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges. Ukraine’s air force chief, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released a video of an airstrike that cut the bridge in two. Less than two days later, Ukrainian troops hit a second bridge in Russia, according to Oleshchuk and Russian regional Gov. Alexei Smirnov. As of Sunday morning, there were no officials giving the exact location of the second bridge attack. But Russian Telegram channels claimed that a second bridge over the Seim, in the village of Zvannoe, had been struck. According to Russia’s Mash news site, the attacks left only one intact bridge in the area. The Associated Press could not immediately verify these claims. If confirmed, the Ukrainian strikes would further complicate Moscow's attempts to replenish its forces and evacuate civilians. Glushkovo is about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, and approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of the main battle zone in Kursk. Zvannoe is located another 8 kilometers (5 miles) to the northwest. Kyiv previously has said little about the goals of its push into Russia with tanks and other armored vehicles, the largest attack on the country since World War II, which took the Kremlin by surprise and saw scores of villages and hundreds of prisoners fall into Ukrainian hands. The Ukrainians drove deep into the region in several directions, facing little resistance and sowing chaos and panic as tens of thousands of civilians fled. Ukraine’s Commander in Chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, claimed last week that his forces had advanced across 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles) of the region, although it was not possible to independently verify what Ukrainian forces effectively control. Buffer zones sought by both sides In his remarks on creating a buffer zone, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces “achieved good and much-needed results.” Analysts say that although Ukraine could try to consolidate its gains inside Russia, it would be risky, given Kyiv’s limited resources, because its own supply lines extending deep into Kursk would be vulnerable. The incursion has proven Ukraine's ability to seize the initiative and has boosted its morale, which was sapped by a failed counteroffensive last summer and months of grinding Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region. For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin said while visiting China in May that Moscow’s offensive that month in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region was aimed at creating a buffer zone there. That offensive opened a new front and displaced thousands of Ukrainians. The attacks were a response to Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region, Putin said. “I have said publicly that if it continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a sanitary zone,” he said. “That’s what we are doing.” Ukraine’s move into Kursk resembled its lightning operation from September 2022, led by Syrskyi, in which its forces reclaimed control of the northeastern Kharkiv region after taking advantage of Russian manpower shortages and a lack of field fortifications. Zelenskyy seeks permission to strike deeper into Russia On Saturday, Zelenskyy urged Kyiv’s allies to lift remaining restrictions on using Western weapons to attack targets deeper in Russia, including in Kursk, saying his troops could deprive Moscow “of any ability to advance and cause destruction” if granted sufficient long-range capabilities. “It is crucial that our partners remove barriers that hinder us from weakening Russian positions in the way this war demands. … The bravery of our soldiers and the resilience of our combat brigades compensate for the lack of essential decisions from our partners,” Zelenskyy said on the social platform X. Russia's Foreign Ministry and pro-Kremlin bloggers alleged U.S.-made HIMARS launchers have been used to destroy bridges on the Seim. These claims could not be independently verified. Ukraine’s leaders have repeatedly sought authorization for long-range strikes on Russian air bases and other infrastructure used to pummel Ukraine’s energy facilities and other civilian targets, including with retrofitted Soviet-era “glide bombs” attacking Ukraine’s industrial east in recent months. Moscow also appears to have increased attacks on Kyiv, targeting it Sunday with ballistic missiles for a third time this month, according to the head of the municipal military administration. Serhii Popko said in a Telegram post the “almost identical” August strikes on the capital “most likely used” North Korean-supplied KN-23 missiles. Another attempt to target Kyiv followed at about 7 a.m. Popko said, this time with Iskander cruise missiles. Ukrainian air defenses struck down all the missiles fired in both attacks on the city, he said. Fears mount for Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant Elsewhere, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Saturday the safety situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is deteriorating. International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi urged “maximum restraint from all sides” after an IAEA team at the plant reported an explosive carried by a drone detonated just outside its protected area. According to Grossi, the impact was “close to the essential water sprinkle ponds” and about 100 meters (100 yards) from the only power line supplying the plant. The IAEA team at the plant has reported intense military activity in the surrounding area in the past week, it said. Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for attacks near the power plant since it was captured by Russian forces early in the 2022 invasion, including a fire at the facility last weekend. Grossi said the blaze had caused “considerable damage,” but posed no immediate danger to nuclear safety. Belarus says it's deploying more troops on Ukraine border Russian ally Belarus has massed “nearly a third” of its army along its border with Ukraine, according to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko told Russian state TV that Minsk was responding to the deployment of more than 120,000 Ukrainian troops to the 1,084-kilometer (674 mile) frontier. Belarus’ professional army numbers upward of 60,000. Ukrainian border force spokesman Andrii Demchenko said Sunday it had not observed any sign of a Belarusian buildup. Lukashenko, in power for three decades, has relied on Russian support to suppress the biggest protests in Belarus’ post-Soviet history after his 2020 reelection, widely seen as a sham both at home and abroad. He allowed Russian troops to use Belarus’ territory to invade Ukraine and let Moscow deploy some tactical nuclear weapons on its soil.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that his country's troops had taken full control of Sudzha, the largest Russian town to fall to Ukraine's forces since the start of their cross-border incursion more than a week ago. Although it had a prewar population of only around 5,000 people, Sudzha is the administrative center for the border area of Russia's Kursk region and is larger than any of the other towns or settlements that Ukraine says it has taken since the incursion began on Aug. 6. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was setting up a military command office in Sudzha, which suggests that Ukraine might plan to remain in the Kursk region long-term — or just signal Moscow that it may intend to do so. He didn't elaborate on what functions the office might handle, though he said earlier this week that Ukraine would be distributing humanitarian aid to Sudzha residents. Russia didn't immediately respond to Zelenskyy's claims, but its defense ministry said earlier Thursday that Russian forces had blocked Ukrainian attempts to take several other communities. The surprise Ukrainian incursion has reframed the war and caused chaos in the Kursk region, leading to the evacuation of more than 120,000 civilians, according to Russian authorities, and the capture of at least 100 Russian troops, according to Kyiv. Zelenskyy has said one of the reasons for the incursion was to protect neighboring Ukrainian regions. “The more Russian military presence is destroyed in the border regions, the closer peace and real security will be for our state. The Russian state must be responsible for what it has done,” he said Tuesday. Russia has seen previous raids of its territory in the war, but the Kursk incursion is notable for its size, speed, the reported involvement of battle-hardened Ukrainian brigades, and the length of time they have stayed inside Russia. As many as 10,000 Ukrainian troops are involved, according to Western military analysts. The incursion also marks the first time foreign troops have invaded and held Russian territory since Nazi Germany did in World War II. Although Russian military bloggers reported that Russian reserves sent to the Kursk region had slowed Ukrainian advances, questions remain over whether the incursion might force Moscow to move troops to Kursk from front-line positions in eastern Ukraine, where they've made slow but steady advances this year. As Kyiv was trumpeting its gains in Kursk on Thursday, officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which had a prewar population of about 60,000, warned civilians to evacuate ahead of rapidly approaching Russian troops, who were about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the city's outskirts. If Russian troops capture Pokrovsk, where they’ve been trying to breach Ukrainian defenses for weeks, they would further advance toward their goal of capturing Ukraine's entire Donetsk region. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that Russia had withdrawn some forces, including infantry units, from Ukraine and was shifting them to Kursk, but that the U.S. didn't know how many troops were involved. However, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to comment publicly, said it doesn't appear that Russia has moved a sufficient number of armored battalions or other types of combat power from the front line in Ukraine to Kursk, and that Moscow will need to shift more troops to repel Kyiv's forces. Asked Thursday if the Pentagon was considering limiting any support to Ukraine in light of the latest incursion, spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said it doesn’t affect what the U.S. is sending, but that, “you’ve seen us modify and give different capabilities over time, and we reserve that right to continue to do that.” Russian military bloggers reported that small Ukrainian mechanized groups have continued to probe Russian defenses. And satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press on Thursday show that a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian air bases damaged at least two hangars and other areas. Images taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC show that two hangars at Borisoglebsk Air Base have been struck, with a field of debris around both. It was not immediately clear what purpose the hangars served. There also appeared to be potential damage to two fighter aircraft at the base. Separately, at Savasleika Air Base, one burn mark could be seen just off the runway in images Wednesday, though there was no apparent damage to the fighter jets and other aircraft there. As of Thursday, the Ukrainian military claimed to be holding more than 80 towns and settlements in the Kursk region. Kursk's acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, on Thursday ordered the evacuation of the Glushkovo region, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of Sudzha. The order suggests Ukrainian forces were gradually advancing toward the area. At a facility receiving evacuees, Tatyana Anikeyeva told Russian state television about her ordeal fleeing from the fighting. “We were rushing from Sudzha. … We hid in the bushes. Volunteers were handing out water, food, bread to people on the go. The sound of the cannonade continued without any break. The house was shaking." Evacuees milled around and waited in long lines for food and other supplies. One man stroked his pet dog and tried to comfort her, while saying that he felt nauseous and had no appetite. Russia also declared a federal-level state of emergency in the Belgorod region, a day after a regional-level declaration was made for the area. The change in status suggests that officials believe the situation is worsening and hampering the region’s ability to deliver aid. Ukraine’s chief military officer, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said earlier this week that Ukrainian forces had taken 1,000 square kilometers (about 390 square miles) of the Kursk region, though his claim couldn't be independently verified. The contact lines in Kursk have remained fluid, allowing both sides to maneuver easily, unlike the static front line in eastern Ukraine, where it has taken Russian forces months to achieve even incremental gains. Russian officials have pushed back on Syrskyi's territorial claim. Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the U.N., Russia's deputy ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, called the incursion an “absolutely reckless and mad operation,” and said Ukraine's aim to force Russia to move its troops from eastern Ukraine is not happening because “we have enough troops there.” Sudzha has a measuring station for Russian natural gas that flows through Ukrainian pipelines and a ccounts for about 3% of Europe’s imports. There has been no indication of any disruption to the gas flow.

Ukraine's stunning incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region was a bold gamble for the country's military commanders, who committed their limited resources to a risky assault on a nuclear-armed enemy with no assurance of success. After the first signs of progress, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke his silence and spelled out Kyiv’s daily advances to his war-weary public. By Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said they controlled 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of enemy territory, including at least 74 settlements and hundreds of Russian prisoners of war. But a week after it began, the overall aim of the daring operation is still unclear: Will Ukraine dig in and keep the conquered territory, advance further into Russian territory or pull back? What is clear is that the incursion has changed the battlefield. The shock of Ukraine’s thunder run revealed chinks in the armor of its powerful adversary. The attack also risked aggravating Ukraine’s own weaknesses by extending the front line and committing new troops at a time when military leaders are short on manpower. To conduct the Kursk operation, Kyiv deployed battalions drawn from multiple brigades, some of which were pulled from the hottest parts of the front line, where Russia’s advance has continued unabated. So far, Moscow’s overall strategic advantage is intact. “The stretching of the front line for us is also stretching the front line for the enemy," said the commander of the 14th Regiment of Unmanned Aviation Systems, who participated in the opening stage of the offensive. “Only we have prepared for this operation in detail. The Russians were not prepared for this operation at all.” He spoke on condition of anonymity, using only the call sign Charlie, in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military. As the offensive enters its second week, Ukrainian forces are pushing out in several directions from the Russian town of Sudzha. Images from the battlefield showing columns of destroyed Russian weaponry are reminiscent of Ukraine’s successful counteroffensives in 2022 in Kherson and Kharkiv. The photos are also a boon to national morale that deflated after the failed 2023 summer counteroffensive and months of recent territorial losses in the east. But some analysts are reserving judgment on whether the Kursk region is the right theater to launch an offensive. Estimates of the number of troops operating there range from 5,000 to 12,000. Within a week, Ukraine claimed to have captured almost as much Russian land in Kursk as Russian forces took in Ukraine in the last seven months, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Russian authorities acknowledged the Ukrainian gains but described them as smaller. Even so, they have evacuated about 132,000 people. Hundreds of Russian prisoners were blindfolded and ferried away in trucks in the opening moments of the lightning advance. They could be used in future prisoner swaps to free thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in captivity. On Wednesday, Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the fighting in Kursk led his Russian counterpart, Tatyana Moskalkova, to initiate a conversation about prisoner swaps, the first time such a request has come from Moscow. Politically, the incursion turned the tables on Russia and reset the terms of a conflict in which Ukraine increasingly seemed doomed to accept unfavorable cease-fire terms. The strike was also a powerful example of Ukrainian determination and a message to Western allies that have dithered on allowing donated weapons to be used for deeper strikes inside Russian territory. The assault has shown that the fear of crossing Russian “red lines” that could lead to nuclear escalation "is a myth, and that Ukraine’s battle-hardened military remains a formidable force,” wrote Taras Kuzio, a professor of political science at the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak suggested that the incursion may also strengthen Kyiv’s hand in future negotiations with Russia. Occupying part of Russian territory ahead of any cease-fire talks may give Ukraine some leverage. Though the fighting continues, the territory currently under Ukrainian control is, by itself, of little economic or strategic value. “There is some important gas infrastructure in the area, but its usefulness is likely to be limited other than as a minor bargaining chip. Ukrainians have also cut a railway line running from Lgov to Belgorod,” said Pasi Paroinen of the Black Bird Group, a Finland-based open-source intelligence agency that monitors the war. Major military bases are far from the current area of operations, and Ukrainian advances are expected to slow as Russia sends in more forces. Ukrainian officials have said they do not intend to occupy Kursk, but they may seek to create a buffer zone to protect settlements in the bordering Sumy region from relentless Russian artillery attacks and to block supply lines to the northeast. Forcing Russia to deploy reserves intended for other parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line was the minimum aim, said Charlie, the commander. But so far, Moscow’s focus in the Donetsk region has not changed. Some Ukrainian troops were pulled from those very lines, where manpower shortages were a key factor that contributed to territorial losses this year. In the strategically significant Pokrovsk area, which is the main thrust of Russia’s offensive effort, soldiers have seen few improvements since the Kursk incursion. “Nothing has changed,” said a soldier known by the call sign Kyianyn, who also spoke on condition of anonymity due to military protocol. “If anything, I see the increase in Russian offensive actions.” But the Kursk operation "showed they can’t defend their own territory,” he said. “All of us are inspired here. Many of our soldiers wanted to go to Kursk and push them straight to the Kremlin.” Targeting Russia’s Northern Grouping of Forces, which feeds the Kharkiv front, is a key goal, said Konstantin Mashovets, a Ukrainian military expert. Some Russian units have reportedly moved from Vovchansk in Kharkiv. In the south, a small number of Russian units were redeployed from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, said Dmytro Lykhovii, the spokesman of the Tavria operational group. But that hasn’t affected Russian attacks. "We even see an increase in (Russian) activity,” Lykhovii said. The Kursk operation has also served to draw attention away from the eastern front, where tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and wounded, and where the Ukrainian military has struggled to repair cracks in its defenses. Most territorial losses in June and July were recorded in the Pokrovsk area, which is near a logistics hub, with fighting intensifying near the towns of Toretsk and Chasiv Yar. Russian forces dialed up those attacks to capitalize on troop fatigue and shortages. On many occasions, the losses were the result of poorly timed troop rotations and blunders that cast doubt about the overall strategy of the Ukrainian military's General Staff. “There is no way Russia will stop its actions in the parts of the front line where they are tactically succeeding,” Mashovets said. “There, they will push and squeeze until their last man is standing, no matter what." But the push into Kursk might force the Kremlin to pull reserves "from the parts of the front line that are of secondary importance.”

Russia said Tuesday that its forces checked an effort by Ukrainian troops to expand a stunning weeklong incursion into the Kursk region, as a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Kyiv has no intention of occupying Russian territory. Russian army units, including fresh reserves, aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces, stopped Ukrainian armored mobile groups from moving deeper into Russia near the Kursk settlements of Obshchy Kolodez, Snagost, Kauchuk and Alexeyevsky, a Russian Defense Ministry statement said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said the cross-border operation was aimed at protecting Ukrainian land from long-range strikes launched from Kursk. “Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Tykhyi was quoted as saying by local media. He said Russia had launched more than 2,000 strikes from the Kursk region in recent months using anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, mortars, drones, 255 glide bombs and more than 100 missiles. "The purpose of this operation is to preserve the lives of our children, to protect the territory of Ukraine from Russian strikes,” he said. Ukraine’s Western partners have said the country has the right to defend itself, including by attacking across the border. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday that he backed the Ukrainian operation, though he said Kyiv officials did not consult him about it beforehand. Russian military actions in Ukraine bear "the hallmarks of genocide, inhumane crimes, and Ukraine has every right to wage war in such a way as to paralyze Russia in its aggressive intentions as effectively as possible,” Tusk said. Kremlin forces intensified their attacks in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s General Staff said Tuesday that over the previous 24 hours, Russian troops launched 52 assaults in the area of Pokrovsk, a town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region that is close to the front line. That's roughly double the number of daily attacks there a week ago. Ukraine's undermanned army has struggled to hold back the bigger, better-equipped Russian forces in Donetsk. The Ukrainian military claims that its charge onto Russian soil that began Aug. 6 has already encompassed about 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory. The goals of the swift advance into the Kursk region have been a closely guarded military secret. Analysts say a catalyst may also have been Ukraine’s desire to ease pressure on its front line by attempting to draw the Kremlin’s forces into defending Kursk and other border areas. If so, the increased pressure around Pokrovsk suggests Moscow did not take the bait. Ukraine’s ambitious operation — the largest attack on Russia since World War II — has rattled the Kremlin. It compelled Russian President Vladimir Putin to convene a meeting Monday with his top defense officials. Apparently, Ukraine assembled thousands of troops — some Western analysts estimate up to 12,000 — on the border in recent weeks without Russia noticing or acting. About 121,000 people have been evacuated from Kursk or have fled the areas affected by fighting on their own, Russian officials say. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said it has seen geolocated footage indicating that Ukrainian forces advanced as much as 24 kilometers (15 miles) from the border. The Russian Defense Ministry appeared to support that claim when it said Tuesday it had also blocked an attack by the units of Ukraine's 82nd Air Assault Brigade toward Maryinka, which is about that distance from Ukraine. Russian state television on Tuesday showed residents from evacuated areas lining up in buildings and on the street to receive food and water. Volunteers were pictured distributing bags of aid, while officials from the country’s Ministry of Emergency Situations helped people, including children and older people, off buses. “There is no light, no connection, no water. There is nothing. It’s as if everyone has flown to another planet, and you are left alone. And the birds stopped singing,” an older man called Mikhail told Russian state television. "Helicopters and planes fly over the yard and shells were flying. What could we do? We left everything behind.” A motive behind Ukraine’s bold dive into Russia was to stir up unrest, according to Putin, but he said that effort would fail. The successful border breach also was surprising because Ukraine has been short of manpower at the front as it waits for new brigades to complete training. Dara Massicot, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, said the Ukrainian breakthrough was a smart move because it exploited gaps between various Russian commands in Kursk: border guards, Ministry of Defense forces and Chechen units that have been fighting on Russia's side in the war. Russian command and control is fractured in Kursk, Massicot said on X late Monday. The Ukrainian Army's General Staff announced Tuesday that it was establishing a 20-kilometer (12-mile) restricted-access zone along Russian-Ukrainian border in the northeastern Sumy region, which borders Kursk. The measures were introduced because of the increasing intensity of combat in the area and the rising presence of Russian reconnaissance and sabotage units there, a statement said.

British authorities said Thursday they were preparing for the possibility of further unrest, even as they applauded the efforts of anti-racism campaigners and police officers who largely stifled a threatened wave of far-right demonstrations overnight. Prime Minister Keir Starmer sounded the note of caution after a week of anti-immigrant violence that has scarred communities from Northern Ireland to the south coast of England. Starmer spoke to reporters at a mosque in Solihull, near Birmingham, where demonstrators shut down a shopping center on Sunday. “It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer said. At an emergency meeting with law enforcement officers at his office, Starmer said on Thursday evening that police need to remain on “high alert,” Britain’s Press Association reported. He credited strategic police staffing and swift justice for rioters in the courts for creating a deterrent that kept trouble at a minimum the night before. Police across the United Kingdom had braced for widespread disorder on Wednesday, after far-right activists circulated a list of more than 100 sites they planned to target, including the offices of immigration lawyers and others offering services to migrants. But those demonstrations failed to materialize as police and counter-protesters filled the streets. Carrying signs saying “Refugees Welcome” and chanting “Whose streets? Our streets,” people turned out in force to protect asylum service centers and the offices of immigration attorneys. The government also declared a national critical incident, putting 6,000 specially trained police on standby to respond to any disorder. Police said that protests and counter-protests were largely peaceful, though a small number of arrests were made. “The show of force from the police and, frankly, the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we faced,” said Commissioner Mark Rowley, the head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. “It went off very peacefully last night, and the fears of extreme right disorder were abated.” But tensions remain high after right-wing agitators fueled the violence by circulating misinformation about the identity of the suspect in a knife attack that killed three young girls in the English seaside town of Southport last week. The last child hospitalized in the July 29 stabbing has been released, police said Thursday. Nearly 500 people have been arrested around the country after anti-immigrant mobs clashed with police, attacked mosques and overran two hotels housing asylum-seekers. Among them was a man in his 50s, arrested on suspicion of “encouraging murder.” The arrest came after a local Labour councilor allegedly called for far-right protesters’ throats to be “cut.'' The Labour Party suspended Ricky Jones, who is alleged to have made the remark at a London demonstration Wednesday. The government has pledged to track down and prosecute those responsible for the disorder, including people who incite violence online. In an effort to dissuade people from taking part in future unrest by showing that rioters will face swift justice, TV cameras were allowed into Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday as Judge Andrew Menary sentenced two men to 32 months in prison. During the hearing, prosecutors played video of rioters pelting police with bricks and setting garbage cans on fire. One of the suspects was in the middle of a group that ripped the bumper off a police vehicle and threw it at officers as onlookers cheered. “It seems to me there were hundreds of people observing, as if this was some sort of Tuesday night entertainment,” Menary said. “All of them should be frankly ashamed of themselves.” Northern Ireland’s regional legislative assembly convened Thursday to respond to the unrest. Minister for Justice Naomi Long said the violence and racist attacks in recent days were “not reflective” of the people of Northern Ireland. “We need to call it for what it is. It is racism, it is Islamophobia, it is xenophobia,″ she said. “If we’re going to deal with it, we need to name it for what it is, and we need to challenge it.″ The government is also considering imposing sanctions other than jail time, including banning rioters from soccer matches. Home Office minister Diana Johnson told LBC Radio that there should be consequences for those implicated in disorder. “I think all options are being looked at, to be honest, and I am pretty clear that most football clubs do not want to be seen to have football hooligans and people carrying out criminal acts on the streets of the local communities in their stands on a Saturday,″ she said.

Russian troops are fighting Ukrainian forces in the third day of one of the largest cross-border incursions of the war, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday. A ministry statement said the Russian military and border guards have blocked Ukrainian forces from advancing deeper into the Kursk region in southwest Russia and that the army is attacking Ukrainian combatants who are trying to advance on the area from Ukraine's Sumy region. “Attempts by individual units to break through deep into the territory in the Kursk direction are being suppressed,” the ministry said. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that as of Wednesday, Ukrainian troops had advanced as much as 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Russian territory, but that information wasn't confirmed. Ukrainian officials haven't commented on the scope of the operation around the town of Sudzha. "The enemy has not advanced a single meter, on the contrary, it is retreating. The enemy’s equipment and combat forces are being actively destroyed. We hope that in the near future ... the enemy will be stopped,” the Kursk region's acting deputy governor Andrei Belostotsky said Thursday, according to state news agency RIA-Novosti. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday described the incursion as a “large-scale provocation.” Putin met with his top defense and security officials to discuss what he called the “indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons.” He instructed the Cabinet to coordinate assistance to the Kursk region. The fighting is about 500 kilometers (320 miles) from Moscow. Army chief of staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin at the meeting via video link that about 100 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the battle and more than 200 others were wounded, Russian news agencies reported. The Ukrainian shelling, meanwhile, killed at least two people — a paramedic and an ambulance driver — and wounded 24 others, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement Wednesday. It wasn't possible to independently verify the Russian claims. Disinformation and propaganda have played a central role in the war, now in its third year. John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesman, declined to comment on the operation and said the Biden administration has reached out to the Ukrainians to better understand what happened. The cross-border foray would be among Ukraine’s largest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, and unprecedented for its deployment of Ukrainian military units. Kyiv’s aim could be to draw Russian reserves to the area, potentially weakening Moscow’s offensive operations in several parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have increased attacks and are advancing gradually toward operationally significant gains. But it could risk stretching outmanned Ukrainian troops further along the front line, which is more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) long. Even if Russia were to commit reserves to stabilize the new front, given its vast manpower and the relatively small number of Ukrainian forces engaged in the operation, it would likely have little long-term impact. However, the operation could boost Ukrainian morale at a time when Kyiv’s forces are facing relentless Russian attacks and are expected to face more in coming weeks. Several Ukrainian brigades stationed along the border region said that they couldn't comment. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and General Staff said that they wouldn't comment. Russian forces have swiftly repelled previous cross-border incursions, but not before they caused damage and embarrassed authorities. Responsibility for previous incursions into Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions has been claimed by two murky groups: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion, which are made up of Russian citizens and have fought alongside Ukrainian forces. Some Russian war bloggers who have proved knowledgeable about the war said that Ukrainian soldiers were in Kursk. Rybar, a Telegram channel run by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a retired Russian Defense Ministry press officer, said that Ukrainian troops had seized three settlements in the region and continued to fight their way deeper in. It also said that Ukrainian forces captured the Sudzha gas transit station, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the border. Russian officials haven't confirmed the gains. Another pro-Kremlin military blog, Two Majors, claimed that Ukrainian troops had advanced up to 15 kilometers (9 miles) into the region. Neither claim could be independently verified. The Kursk region’s border with Ukraine is 245 kilometers (150 miles) long, making it possible for saboteur groups to launch swift incursions and capture some ground before Russia deploys reinforcements.

Part of a hotel in a winemaking town on the Mosel River in western Germany collapsed, leaving two people dead and two others still trapped in the wreckage hours later, authorities said Wednesday. Fourteen people were in the hotel in Kroev when one story of the building collapsed at about 11 p.m. Tuesday. Police said five were able to get out of the building unhurt because they weren't in the part that collapsed. But others were trapped. Rescuers were able to contact some of them by cellphone. But getting to them proved to be difficult because the collapse of one story left two ceilings lying on top of each other, according to Joerg Teusch, fire and disaster protection inspector for the Bernkastel-Wittlich district. “We have to proceed with caution because the entire building structure is like a house of cards. If we pull on the wrong card, this building is sure to collapse," he said. Five people were rescued Wednesday. Among the first to be saved was a 2-year-old child pulled out unharmed and the child’s mother, who was rescued with minor injuries. The child's father was rescued later. “We all had tears in our eyes and I still feel the same now. The whole story has a very emotional component, because when we arrived, when we looked at the building, it looked like we weren’t taking anyone out,” Teusch said at a news conference. Teusch said the cause of the structural collapse hasn't yet been determined. The original hotel building is believed to date back to the 17th century, but additional stories were added around 1980, he said. He added that building work had taken place on Tuesday, but it wasn’t clear whether there was any link between that and the collapse. Regional public broadcaster SWR said that witnesses reported hearing a bang and seeing a large cloud of dust at the time of the collapse. The rescue operation involved 250 emergency workers, including drone specialists, as well as rescue dogs. “There was no option (to use) stairs, house entrances, doors or windows, because they were simply no longer there,” Teusch said. Authorities evacuated 21 people from three buildings immediately around the damaged hotel. The hotel guests at the time of the collapse were largely German, apart from a Dutch family. Two Germans, a man and a woman, died. Kroev is on a picturesque section of the Mosel near the larger resort town of Traben-Trarbach. It has about 2,200 inhabitants.

British police are gearing up for another night of violence amid concerns that far-right groups plan to target as many as 30 locations around the United Kingdom on Wednesday following a week of rioting and disorder. Authorities are mobilizing about 6,000 specially trained officers this week to respond to disorder throughout the U.K., and London’s Metropolitan Police Service said it would do “everything in our power” to protect the capital. “We know about the events planned by hateful and divisive groups across the capital,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine of the Met said late Tuesday. “They’ve made their intention to cause disruption and division very clear … We will not tolerate this on our streets.” U.K. cities and towns across have been wracked by violence for the past week as angry mobs egged on by far-right extremists have clashed with police and counterdemonstrators sparked by the spread of misinformation about the identity of the suspect in a stabbing rampage that killed three young girls in the seaside community of Southport. The suspect was falsely identified as an immigrant and a Muslim. Rioters spouting anti-immigrant slogans have attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum-seekers, with reports emerging of violent counterattacks in some communities. Internet chat groups have shared a list of law firms specializing in immigration and advice agencies as possible targets for gatherings Wednesday. The messages have invited people to “mask up” if attending. Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a second consecutive meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency response committee on Tuesday to coordinate the response to the crisis, which he has described as “far-right thuggery.” Police have already made more than 400 arrests around the country, and the government has pledged to prosecute and jail those responsible for the disorder. The prosecutions of those who have admitted taking part in the unrest are already underway, as authorities warned severe sentences would be handed out for causing trouble. Among the first to be sentenced was Derek Drummond, 58, who was sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to violent disorder and punching a police officer in the face in Southport on July 30. He was one of three men to be jailed in cases heard at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday. “The three men sentenced today are the tip of the iceberg, and just the start of what will be a very painful process for many who foolishly chose to involve themselves in violent unrest,'' senior district crown prosecutor Jonathan Egan said. “Many of those involved will be sent to prison for a long time.” The government has also announced new measures to protect mosques. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a post on X that the police, city hall and community leaders are working to protect targeted buildings and places of worship. “I know the shocking scenes have left many Muslims and minority ethnic communities scared and fearful, so I ask my fellow Londoners to check on their friends and neighbors and show them that care and compassion is what Londoners are all about," he said. “In London, we have zero-tolerance for racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism or any form of hate."

Turkey will file a request with a United Nations court on Wednesday to join South Africa’s genocide lawsuit against Israel, a Turkish official said. The declaration of intervention will be submitted at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the official said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations that bar officials from speaking to the media without prior authorization Turkey, one of the fiercest critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza, will become the latest nation to seek to participate in the case. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has frequently compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, accused his country of genocide, called for it to be punished in international courts and criticized Western nations for backing Israel. In May, Turkey suspended trade with Israel, citing its assault on Gaza. In contrast to Western nations that have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, Erdogan has commended the group, calling it a liberation movement. South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice late last year, accusing Israel of violating the genocide convention through its military operations in Gaza. Israel has strongly rejected accusations of genocide and has argued that the war in Gaza is a legitimate defensive action against Hamas militants for their Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. Nicaragua, Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Spain and Palestinian officials have sought to join the case. The court’s decision on their requests is still pending. If admitted to the case, the countries would be able to make written submissions and speak at public hearings. Preliminary hearings have already been held in the genocide case against Israel, but the court is expected to take years to reach a final decision. Former allies Turkey and Israel have experienced a volatile relationship since Erdogan took power in 2003, marked by periods of severe friction and reconciliation. The conflict in Gaza disrupted the most recent attempts at normalizing ties.