Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least five people across Russia, also hitting industrial sites and a further warehouse belonging to Russia’s e-commerce giant Wildberries, local officials said.
Wildberries, Russia's largest online marketplace, is sometimes described as the country’s answer to Amazon. In under two weeks, Ukraine has struck over a dozen of the retailer’s depots, part of Kyiv’s aerial campaign aimed at undermining Moscow's war effort, hurting its economy and making people feel the consequences of the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Russian air defenses overnight shot down 635 Ukrainian drones, including over occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov Seas, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. The ministry did not say how many were launched or struck targets.
Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 133 drones during the night, 24 of which hit targets, according to the Ukrainian air force. Later on Sunday, separate Russian attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv killed at least two people, according to local officials.
Ukrainian drones targeted a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the Russian-Ukrainian border, according to local Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev. He said a fire had broken out but there were no casualties.
Kyiv’s campaign against Wildberries first hit the company's sites in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and in the Tambov region July 18. Strikes followed on facilities across western and southern Russia, as well as Russian-held Crimea. At least nine people have been killed and scores wounded.
Two people were killed as a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the Saratov region east of Samara, local. Gov. Roman Busargin said.
He added that the strikes damaged civil infrastructure in Engels, where the deaths took place, and the regional capital, Saratov.
Both cities have been frequent targets for Ukrainian attacks in recent years. Engels hosts a military airbase, while Saratov is home to a large oil refinery.
In Russia’s Bashkortostan region further north, local Gov. Radiy Khabirov said that air defence had repelled a large-scale drone strike on “industrial facilities” in the city of Ufa. He did not specify what exactly was struck, but said that a blaze was being put out.
In the Udmurt Republic further northwest, three civilians died and two more were wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike, according to acting regional head Olga Abramova.
Abramova said air defenses shot down two Ukrainian drones and “prevented an attempted attack” by Kyiv. She said a civilian car was damaged in the strike, without clarifying if drone debris was the cause.
In Ukraine, one person died on Sunday as a Russian guided bomb struck a residential building in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to local administration head Ivan Fedorov. Another attack on Sunday killed one person and set fire to a postal terminal on the outskirts of Kharkiv, in the northwest, said regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov.
A Nova Poshta postal warehouse is destroyed following Russian air attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)
A Nova Poshta postal warehouse is destroyed following Russian air attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)
Firefighter put out a fire at a Nova Poshta postal warehouse following Russian air attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Two Greek firefighting helicopters collided in midair Sunday while battling a wind-driven wildfire west of Athens, sending one aircraft crashing to the ground, footage showed.
Each helicopter carried a two-person crew, the Greek fire department said. A search-and-rescue operation was underway near Porto Germeno, and authorities gave no immediate word on the crews’ condition.
The collision laid bare the danger at the most volatile front of Europe’s wildfire emergency. Strong winds drove flames deeper into the Athens region and forced fresh evacuations, France guarded a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris, while Spain’s major fires stopped advancing.
The most immediate danger was in Greece. Flames spread through western Attica, the region around Athens, threatening communities and an industrial district outside Megara as violent gusts prevented firefighting aircraft from collecting water from the sea. The danger carried grim resonance in a region where the 2018 Mati wildfire killed 104 people, Europe’s deadliest blaze this century.
Farther west, containment brought no end to the emergency. France’s largest wildfire remained held within its perimeter after forcing 224,000 people to flee in what may have been the country’s largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.
Hot spots still burned within a 420-square-kilometer (162-square-mile) scar, thousands remained unable to return home, and nearly 3,000 firefighters were deployed against the Gironde megafire and a second, still-uncontained blaze in Provence.
Together, fires in France and Spain have driven roughly a third of a million people from homes and vacation sites, emptied communities at the height of the European summer and stretched emergency services across simultaneous disasters.
The mass evacuations in France and Spain are the latest measure of a wildfire threat growing across Europe.
The continent entered 2026 after its worst fire year on record, with more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles) burned in 2025. Over the past four decades, wildfires have been linked to nearly 800 deaths across much of Europe, according to the European Environment Agency.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent. It has warmed more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Human-caused climate change made the extreme fire-weather conditions behind this year’s French blazes at least twice as likely, scientists at World Weather Attribution found in a rapid analysis conducted while the fires were still burning.
Nearly 500 firefighters and 23 aircraft were deployed, but gale-force winds drove flames through dry forest and crippled the response, preventing some aircraft from reaching the sea to collect water.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of Kandili, Agia Skepi and Toutouli as smoke rose over the mountains. Crews were particularly concerned about Porto Germeno, a seaside community on the Gulf of Corinth. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was briefed on the operation.
The fire began Friday near Agios Vasileios before sweeping toward Porto Germeno and into the forested mountains west of Athens. Firefighters evacuated 254 people by sea Friday and another 12 Saturday — often the last escape route when fire and smoke cut the few roads from coastal communities.
Wildfire meteorologist Theodore Giannaros estimated the blaze had affected 40 to 50 square kilometers (15 to 19 square miles), though authorities had issued no official figure.
Elsewhere in Greece, flames threatened homes on Kefalonia, forcing evacuations from inland communities as aircraft made water drops over the Ionian island. Firefighters battled another blaze near Nea Tenedos in Halkidiki.
Earlier this week, two firefighters died fighting a fire on Crete, while a third was killed in the Peloponnese.
“A pristine forest, a paradise, was surrendered to the hands of the fire,” local farmer Minas Tzortzanis said Saturday. “There are no words to explain what has happened. Destruction. Total destruction.”
In southwestern France, the Gironde megafire remained held within its perimeter Sunday but continued to burn after scorching 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) of forest in 10 days.
“The fire is now fixed, which does not mean that the fire is extinguished,” the Gironde prefecture said, using the French firefighting term for a blaze whose advance has been stopped.
The region remained under France’s highest red forest-fire alert. Dry conditions, soaring temperatures around Bordeaux and afternoon winds threatened to rekindle the flames.
In Le Porge, local officials said about 150 homes were destroyed. Mechanic Matthieu Plessis returned Saturday to the ruins of a house that had been in his family for seven generations.
“There are places I don’t even recognize anymore,” he said. “You don’t even know what was here anymore, or who lived where.”
Firefighters from Ukraine, Lithuania and French Polynesia were expected Sunday and Monday to reinforce the operation.
In southeastern France, nearly 1,500 firefighters battled a separate blaze in the Var department that tore through about 18 square kilometers (7 square miles) in little more than a day.
The Gros Bessillon fire was stabilized Sunday after its perimeter held overnight, but it remained uncontained. Some 2,500 people were evacuated as flames threatened nearby communities.
It was the fourth major fire to strike central Var since July 19. A smaller blaze near Brignoles earlier in the week forced actor George Clooney and his family, along with about 700 other residents, to evacuate before it was brought under control.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said France’s fires were generally under control but warned that conditions remained volatile. He appointed a national coordinator to oversee reconstruction in fire-ravaged areas.
More than 1,170 square kilometers (452 square miles) have burned across France this year.
Spain’s major fires — part of a season that has killed at least 13 people, produced the country’s largest recorded wildfire and prompted a national emergency — were no longer advancing Sunday.
In Zamora province near the Portuguese border, more than 20 ground and aerial units guarded the perimeter of the Fermoselle fire against flare-ups in the rugged Arribes del Duero landscape. Most evacuees had returned home, according to local media.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to confront wildfires, warning that climate change is making them increasingly destructive.
Adamson reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Nicolas Garriga in Lacanau, France; Michael Varaklas in Megara, Greece; and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
A firefighting helicopter drops water over a smoke-filled forest during a wildfire near Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
A firefighting helicopter drops water over a smoke-filled forest during a wildfire near Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
An Airbus helicopter lets a Bambi Bucket full of water go over a firezone, near Blagon, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
A firefighting helicopter releases water over a wildfire near Correns, southeastern France, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (Clement Mahoudeau/Pool Photo via AP)
The light flows through a charred forest near Ares, during wildfires in southwestern France, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An aerial view of a homes burned by wildfires in Le Porge, southwestern France, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
A firefighter walks through a charred forest near Blagon, during wildfires, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
