Drone Strikes

Israeli forces have carried out air strikes on the areas of Mahmoudiyeh and Jarmak, in southern Lebanon. The strikes are the latest in near-daily Israeli violations of the US-brokered ceasefire involving Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that began in November.

A residential building floor collapsed as rescue workers were searching through the rubble, following overnight Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia. Officials said six children were among 13 injured in the strikes.

Moscow is accused of running sabotage and espionage operations across Europe, targeting nations supporting Ukraine.

Authorities in Poland have arrested eight individuals across the country on suspicion of espionage and sabotage.

In a brief statement on social media, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that the case is developing and that “further operational activities are ongoing” without providing further details.

The detentions come amid accusations that Russia is operating a network of spies and saboteurs across Europe.

Referring to the prime minister’s post, the coordinator of Poland’s special services, Tomasz Siemoniak, said that the detained people are suspected of engaging in espionage and planning attacks.

They were arrested due to “conducting reconnaissance of military facilities and critical infrastructure, preparing resources for sabotage, and directly carrying out attacks”, he said.

While Warsaw has not directly linked the arrests, officials have said previously that Poland has been targeted with such attacks in a “hybrid war” waged by Russia to destabilise nations supporting Ukraine.

Several other European countries have also pointed the finger at Moscow as they have suffered similar attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Polish authorities have detained dozens of people over suspected sabotage and espionage over the past three years or so.

Moscow denies the accusations, insisting that they are the result of “Russophobia”.

In May last year, Polish authorities arrested three men for an arson attack. In September, Lithuanian prosecutors broke up a network that they said planned arson and explosive attacks in several European Union states.

The same month, Latvia’s security service announced the detention of a man suspected of passing military intelligence to Russia, and British police arrested three people suspected of running sabotage and espionage operations for Russia.

The United Kingdom has also repeatedly accused Russia of orchestrating sabotage and spy operations on its soil and beyond. The Kremlin has accused London of blaming Moscow for “anything bad that happens”.

Drones increasing concern

This autumn, drone incursions have added to the European security concerns, with Belgium, Denmark and Germany among several countries reporting sightings.

The incursions provoked airport closures in both Germany and Denmark.

“We are at the beginning of a hybrid war against Europe,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. “I think we are going to see more of it … We see the pattern, and it does not look good,” she added.

Tusk pledged to urgently upgrade Poland’s air defences after NATO forces shot down several drones over his country last month.

The European Union, recognising the inefficiency of using multimillion-euro weapons to battle cheap drones, has reacted to the incursions with proposals to develop a “drone wall” on its eastern borders.

Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, mediated by Qatar and Turkiye. The agreement was reached after a week of deadly clashes and strikes along their disputed border.

Video shows the aftermath of drone and artillery strikes on a shelter in the besieged city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state, which killed at least 60 people. The attack was carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to a Sudanese medical advocacy group.

Allied forces launch joint patrols near Russia after reports of drone incursions into allied airspace.

The United Kingdom has said two Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft joined a 12-hour NATO patrol earlier this week near Russia’s border, following a series of Russian drone and aircraft incursions into alliance airspace.

“This was a substantial joint mission with our US and NATO allies,” Defence Minister John Healey said on Saturday, as concerns rise that Russia’s war in Ukraine will spill over into Europe.

“Not only does this provide valuable intelligence to boost the operational awareness of our Armed Forces, but sends a powerful message of NATO unity to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and our adversaries,” he added.

The mission involved an RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance jet and a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flying from the Arctic region past Belarus and Ukraine, supported by a US Air Force KC-135 refuelling plane.

British officials said the operation followed several incursions into the airspace of NATO members, including Poland, Romania, and Estonia.

Growing airspace tensions

In recent weeks, Poland and its allies have reinforced air defences amid increasing Russian drone activity. Earlier this month, Warsaw deployed additional systems along its border with Ukraine – which stretches about 530km (330 miles) – after unidentified drones briefly entered Polish airspace.

Poland temporarily closed part of its airspace southeast of Warsaw in late September during a major Russian assault across Ukraine. It was the second such incident this year, with Polish and NATO forces previously intercepting Russian drones that crossed the border – marking their first direct military engagement with Moscow since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

Elsewhere, airports in Germany, Denmark, Norway and Poland have at times also temporarily suspended flights due to sightings of unidentified drones. Romania and Estonia have directly accused Russia, which has dismissed the claims as “baseless”.

Putin has pledged a “significant” response to what he called “Europe’s militarisation”, rejecting suggestions that Moscow plans to attack NATO as “nonsense”.

“They can’t believe what they’re saying, that Russia is going to attack NATO,” he said on Thursday at a foreign policy forum in Sochi. “They’re either incredibly incompetent if they truly believe it because it’s impossible to believe this nonsense, or they’re simply dishonest.”

Putin said he was closely monitoring Europe’s military build-up and warned that Russia would not hesitate to respond. “In Germany, for example, it is said that the German army should become the strongest in Europe. Very well. We hear that and are watching to see what is meant by it,” he said. “Russia will never show weakness or indecisiveness. We simply cannot ignore what is happening.”

Relations between Moscow and the European Union have continued to deteriorate since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, driving the bloc to strengthen its collective defences amid fears the war could spill across NATO borders.

Russian drone and missile strikes have wounded at least 20 people in Kyiv, damaged residential buildings and caused blackouts across swaths of Ukraine, authorities have said.

In the latest mass attack targeting the energy system as winter approaches, electricity was interrupted in nine regions, and more than a million households and businesses were temporarily without power across the country on Friday.

In southeastern Ukraine, a seven-year-old was killed when his home was hit, and at least 20 people were injured. In Kyiv, an apartment block in the city centre was damaged by a projectile, while on the left bank of the Dnipro River that divides the capital, crowds waited at bus stops with the metro out of action, and people filled water bottles at distribution points.

“We didn’t sleep at all,” said Liuba, a pensioner, as she collected water. “From 2:30am, there was so much noise. By 3:30, we had no electricity, no gas, no water. Nothing.”

According to Ukraine’s energy ministry, more than 800,000 customers temporarily lost power in Kyiv.

Moscow’s attack overnight and into Friday fell on the third anniversary of Russia’s first large-scale attack on energy facilities, months after Moscow invaded in February 2022, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia’s latest strikes a “cynical and calculated attack”, and urged allies to respond with concrete measures.

“What’s needed is not window dressing but decisive action – from the United States, Europe, and the G7 – in delivering air defence systems and enforcing sanctions,” he said in a statement on X.

The Kremlin has escalated aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and rail systems over recent weeks, building on earlier bombing campaigns over the previous three winters that left millions without heating in frigid temperatures. Russia said its forces had hit energy sites supplying power to Ukraine’s defence industry.

The Ukrainian air force said the Russian barrage comprised 465 drones and 32 missiles, adding that 405 drones and 15 missiles were downed.

A source in Ukraine’s energy sector told the AFP news agency that the intensity of attacks was higher compared to last year, and that cloudy weather overnight had allowed drones to evade Ukrainian air defence systems.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian forces had targeted “critical infrastructure”.

“This was one of the largest concentrated strikes against energy facilities,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.

It was the fourth attack in a week against the facilities of Ukraine’s biggest private electricity provider, DTEK, its CEO Maxim Timchenko said.

Late on Friday DTEK said it had restored power to at least 678,000 households and companies in Kyiv after the massive Russian aerial attack.

“DTEK power engineers continue to intensively restore electricity to Kyiv residents,” the company said on Telegram.

Children ‘rejoined’ with families

The Russian attack came as United States First Lady Melania Trump announced that eight children displaced by the war had been reunited with their families following negotiations between her team and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s.

Trump said that Putin had responded to a letter sent via her husband, President Donald Trump, at a summit in Alaska in August.

“My representative has been working directly with President Putin’s team to ensure the safe reunification of children with their families between Russia and Ukraine. In fact, eight children have been rejoined with their families during the past 24 hours,” she said in a short, six-minute speech from the White House on Friday.

US President Trump’s own efforts to broker an end to Russia’s three-year war in Ukraine have stalled, as a series of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations this year ended.

Trump said on Thursday that Washington and NATO allies were “stepping up the pressure” to end the war in Ukraine.

But the Kremlin said that momentum towards reaching a peace deal had largely vanished.

Evidence was found in a building a few hundred metres from Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s Antwerp residence.

Belgian authorities say they have arrested three people in connection with a plot to attack Prime Minister Bart De Wever and other politicians using drone-mounted explosives.

Federal prosecutor Ann Fransen announced the arrests on Thursday and said the group were under investigation for an “attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group”, according to Belgian public broadcaster RTBF.

“Certain elements indicate that the suspects intended to carry out a jihadist-inspired terrorist attack against political figures,” Fransen told reporters.

“There are also indications that the suspects aimed to construct a drone to which a payload could be attached,” she added.

Fransen did not name their intended targets, but social media posts from senior figures in De Wever’s government indicate that he was on the list.

“The news of a planned attack targeting Prime Minister Bart De Wever is deeply shocking,” wrote Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot in a post on X.

“I express my full support to the Prime Minister, his wife, and his family, as well as my gratitude to the security and justice services whose swift action prevented the worst.”

Defence Minister Theo Francken shared a similar message on X.

“Prime Minister, Bart, all our support for you and your family. Thanks to the security services. Never surrender,” he said.

De Wever did not immediately comment on the case.

Belgium’s Gazet van Antwerpen newspaper said explosives were found by police in an Antwerp building a few hundred metres from De Wever’s residence.

Evidence included an improvised explosive device still under construction, a bag of steel balls, and a 3D printer, the newspaper said. Police believe the group were trying to build a drone capable of carrying an explosive payload.

Authorities did not release the names of the suspects but said they had been born in 2001, 2002, and 2007.

One of the suspects has been released, according to Fransen, and two are due to appear before an investigating judge on Friday.

Gazet van Antwerpen said De Wever has been the subject of previous threats. Earlier this year, a Belgian court convicted five people of making preparations to carry out an attack against him.

Here are the key events from day 1,323 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Thursday, October 9, 2025:

Fighting

• Three people were killed and one injured by Ukrainian shelling in Russia’s Belgorod region, the local governor said.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Novohryhorivka in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region.
• Russia’s air defence units destroyed 53 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing Russian Defence Ministry data.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that his country’s forces had killed thousands of Russian soldiers in the Dobropillia region of eastern Ukraine since August 21, when they launched a counteroffensive against Moscow’s occupying troops. Zelenskyy said this information was based on a report he had received from the Ukrainian army’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii.
• Zelenskyy also said Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s oil facilities had degraded them to an extent that the country was experiencing energy shortages. Russia, he claimed, had been forced to turn to its diesel reserves, which it had been saving for “a rainy day”.

Regional security

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said recent drone incidents and other airspace violations show Europe is facing hybrid warfare to which it must respond with measures that go beyond traditional defences, speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
• Von der Leyen said it was clear Russia’s aim was to “sow division” and “weaken support for Ukraine”, and that Europe could “either shy away and watch Russian threats escalate, or meet them with unity, deterrence and resolve”. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has denied that Moscow was behind the recent drone incursions into the airspaces of multiple European nations.

Military aid

• Russia will respond harshly if the United States supplies Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, said, emphasising that “those who supply them and those who use them will have problems”.

Diplomacy

• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the impetus to find a Ukrainian peace deal, which emerged after the summit between President Putin and US President Donald Trump in August, had proven to be exhausted.
• Ryabkov urged US leadership to take a “sober and responsible approach” to a possible transfer of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying such transactions could lead to a “qualitative change” in the situation.

Here are the key events from day 1,322 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Wednesday, October 8, 2025:

Fighting

• Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces have captured almost 5,000 square kilometres (1,930sq miles) of Ukrainian territory so far this year, and Moscow retains the strategic initiative on the battlefield.
• Russian troops have captured the Ukrainian villages of Novovasylivka in the southeastern Zaporizhia region and Fedorivka in the eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry said.
• Russian air defence units destroyed 184 Ukrainian drones in recent attacks, the RIA Novosti state-owned news agency reports.
• Russia’s air defence units also intercepted and destroyed a drone flying towards Moscow city, said Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of the Russian capital.

• Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said Russian air strikes have caused “significant” damage to Ukrainian gas production capacity due to the targeting of regional gas infrastructure and power transmission facilities in front-line regions.
• Hrynchuk said Ukraine wants to increase imports of natural gas by 30 percent after Russian attacks on its gas infrastructure, telling reporters she had discussed additional gas imports with Group of Seven (G7) member states.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of using oil tankers for intelligence gathering and sabotage operations, and he added that Ukraine was cooperating with its allies on the matter.
• Russia’s state nuclear energy company has claimed that a Ukrainian drone attempted to strike a nuclear plant in Russia’s Voronezh region bordering Ukraine, but the unmanned aerial vehicle crashed into a cooling tower and caused no damage at the site.

Military aid

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was waiting for clarity from the United States about the possible supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying such weapons could theoretically carry nuclear warheads and reiterated that Moscow would see the provision of such weapons as a serious escalation.
• The Kremlin also said it assumed for now that US President Donald Trump still sought a peace settlement in Ukraine.

Peace talks

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with President Putin and said diplomatic initiatives need to gain momentum to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Russia-Ukraine war, Erdogan’s office said.
• The statement cited Erdogan as saying Turkiye will continue to work for peace and said bilateral relations and regional and global issues were also discussed with Putin.
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she believed Trump had come to the conclusion that Russia was not interested in a peace deal with Ukraine, and that the only way forward was to apply pressure, continue to support Ukraine, and impose sanctions on Russia.

Politics and diplomacy

• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it is not in Poland’s interest to hand over a Ukrainian man wanted by Germany for suspected involvement in explosions which damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines three years ago.
• Tusk said the problem with Nord Stream 2 was not that it was blown up but that it was built. He added that Russia built the pipelines “against the vital interests not only of our countries, but of all of Europe”.
• A Polish court ruled on Monday that the Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany over his alleged involvement in the explosions, which damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline, must remain in custody for another 40 days, his lawyer said.
• European Union governments have agreed to impose limits on the travel of Russian diplomats within the bloc, the Financial Times reported.

Economy

• Ukraine’s foreign currency reserves totalled $46.5bn as of October 1, the National Bank of Ukraine reported on its website.

Here are the key events on day 1,315 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Wednesday, October 1 :

Fighting

• Russian forces claim to have captured a village near the city of Siversk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the Russian Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is engaging with Russia and Ukraine to restore offsite power to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as Russian shelling has prevented restoration of power needed to cool nuclear reactors and prevent a meltdown, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia’s shelling around the Zaporizhzhia plant “is a threat to everyone”.
• “No terrorist in the world has ever dared to do with a nuclear power plant what Russia is doing now,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Tuesday.

Regional security

• European Union leaders will discuss proposals for a “drone wall” at a summit on Wednesday in Copenhagen, following days of airspace intrusions by unidentified unmanned aircraft that forced temporary closures at Danish airports.
• The “drone wall” summit will also be the first opportunity for leaders of the EU’s 27 countries to debate a proposal to use Russian assets frozen in European banks to fund a loan of 140 billion euros ( $164.37bn) for Ukraine.
• The Kremlin said that Germany has long been indirectly involved in the war in Ukraine after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that Europe is “no longer at peace” with Russia.
• Moscow also said that Europe would be better off seeking dialogue with Russia about security issues rather than looking to build a divisive “drone wall”.
• Romania is looking to quickly set up production on its territory of a plant to build defensive drones, along with Ukraine, for use domestically as well as by EU and NATO allies, the country’s foreign minister, Oana Toiu, said.
• The French Navy said that authorities were investigating a possible sanctions infraction by the oil tanker Boracay, a vessel suspected of belonging to the so-called “shadow fleet” involved in the transport of Russian oil.

Military aid

• Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow did not believe that Washington had taken a final decision on supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.

Politics and diplomacy

• The Kremlin said that there were many people living in Ukraine’s Odesa and Mykolaiv regions who wanted to “link their fate to Russia” but were afraid to speak out.
• Russia will expel an Austrian diplomat, according to Russian state news agencies, in response to Vienna’s decision to throw out a Russian diplomat over suspicions of relaying company secrets from Austrian oil company OMV to the Kremlin.
• US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that India is starting to diversify its oil purchases away from Russia, and that the EU is trying to strengthen economic ties with India.
• Russia’s Lavrov said that he believed Moldova’s election on Sunday had been openly manipulated, as the pro-European governing party won a resounding victory over its Russian-leaning rival in the key parliamentary election.

India’s cricket team hoisted an imaginary trophy after winning the 2025 Asia Cup against Pakistan, refusing to accept the real one from Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. The match came four months after a brief aerial war between the two nuclear-armed rivals over a deadly attack on a tourist area in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Russia has launched a heavy attack on Ukraine with hundreds of kamikaze drones hitting residential buildings in Kyiv. At least four people have been killed, including a 12-year-old girl.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto has told the United Nations General Assembly that the United States has an “illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads”, as reports emerge that the US is planning to escalate attacks on the South American country.

Pinto told the gathering of UN member states on Friday in New York that his country was grateful for the support of governments and people “that are speaking out against this attempt to bring war to the Caribbean and South America”.

The minister claimed US threats towards his country were aimed at allowing “external powers to rob Venezuela’s immeasurable oil and gas wealth”.

He also accused Washington of using “vulgar and perverse lies” to “justify an atrocious, extravagant and immoral multibillion-dollar military threat”.

Earlier on Friday, US broadcaster NBC News reported that US military officials are drawing up plans to “target drug traffickers inside Venezuela” with air attacks, citing two unnamed US officials.

US President Donald Trump said last week that US forces had carried out a third strike targeting a vessel he said was “trafficking illicit narcotics”. At least 17 people have been killed in the three attacks.

Experts have cast doubt on the legality of US attacks on foreign boats in international waters, while data from both the UN and the US itself suggest that Venezuela is not a major source of cocaine coming into the US, as Trump has claimed.

In an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said of drug smugglers: ” To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence.”

By contrast, Colombian President Gustavo Petro used his UNGA address to call for a “criminal process” to be opened against Trump over the attacks on vessels in the Caribbean, which had killed Venezuelans who had not been convicted of any crime.

The US has so far deployed eight warships to international waters off Venezuela’s coast, backed by F-35 fighter jets sent to Puerto Rico, in what it calls an anti-drug operation.

Washington has also refused an appeal for dialogue from Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, whom the Trump administration has accused of drug trafficking – a claim Maduro has strenuously denied.

Maduro and his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, had once been regular presences at the annual UNGA meetings taking place in New York, but Maduro did not come this year, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing him as a fugitive from justice over a US indictment on drug-trafficking allegations.

Back home in Venezuela, Maduro has called for military drills to begin on Saturday, to test “the people’s readiness for natural catastrophes or any armed conflict” amid US “threats”.

‘Our fishermen are peaceful’

Venezuelan fishers who spoke to the AFP news agency said that the US strikes on Venezuelan boats have made them fearful to venture too far from shore.

“It’s very upsetting because our country is peaceful, our fishermen are peaceful,” Joan Diaz, 46, told AFP in the northern town of Caraballeda.

“Fishermen go out to work, and they [the US] have taken these measures to come to our … workplace to intimidate us, to attack us,” he said.

Diaz said most fishers stay relatively close to shore, but that “to fish for tuna, you have to go very far, and that’s where they [the US forces] are.”

Luis Garcia, a 51-year-old who leads a grouping of some 4,000 fishermen and women in the La Guaira region, described the US actions as “a real threat”.

“We have nine-, 10-, 12-metre fishing boats against vessels that have missiles. Imagine the madness. The madness, my God!” he exclaimed.

“We keep contact with everyone … especially those who are going a little further,” he said.

“We report to the authorities where we are going, where we are, and how long our fishing operations will last, and we also report to our fishermen’s councils,” Garcia said.

But, Garcia added, they would not be intimidated.

“We say to him: ‘Mr Donald Trump, we, the fishermen of Venezuela … will continue to carry out our fishing activities. We will continue to go out to the Caribbean Sea that belongs to us.’”

Here are the key events on day 1,310 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Friday, September 26:

Fighting

• Ukrainian naval drones hit Russian ports in Novorossiysk and Tuapse on Wednesday, causing the temporary suspension of operations by Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft’s oil terminals at the sites, according to a Ukrainian intelligence source.
• A drone was downed and detonated approximately 800m (some 0.5 miles) from the perimeter of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant in the Mykolaiv region after 22 Russian drones were observed in the vicinity of the plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
• Russian state news agency TASS claimed that Ukraine attempted an attack on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in western Russia – one of the biggest nuclear plants in the country.
• Ukraine’s northern city of Chernihiv and surrounding districts are facing major power cuts after a Russian attack on critical infrastructure, affecting approximately 30,000 consumers, a local official said.

Regional security

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for “effective deterrence” by NATO in response to repeated airspace violations by Russia and reiterated the military alliance’s commitment to use “all necessary military and non-military tools” to defend itself.
• NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte has backed United States President Donald Trump’s comments this week that NATO member countries should shoot down Russian drones and planes if they enter their airspace.
• Romanian Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu said European states must respond “firmly but proportionally” to provocations, such as having their national airspace violated, adding that Romania’s top defence council agreed on a clear chain of command response in case of airspace breaches by manned and unmanned aircraft.
• German defence conglomerate Rheinmetall plans to build a new ammunition plant in Latvia, expanding the capability of the Baltic nation bordering Russia to defend itself militarily as European countries race to increase their defence capabilities in the wake of Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be ready to step down from his position when the war with Russia is over, he told the Axios news site.
• Trump said NATO’s relationship with the US was the strongest it has ever been, speaking from the White House on Thursday during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban held a phone call with Trump to discuss energy security in Central Europe, as the prime minister explained to the US president that Hungary’s energy supply cannot be guaranteed without Russian gas and oil imports.

Peace talks

• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow assumed the Trump administration still maintained the political will to find a solution to the war with Ukraine, and that Russia was ready to engage in peace negotiations.
• Peskov’s comment comes just days after Trump abruptly shifted his rhetoric and said he believed Kyiv could recapture all of its land taken by Russia.

At least 70 people were killed when the paramilitary RSF struck a mosque in Sudan’s el-Fasher in Darfur. The attack came the same day the UN warned of deepening ethnic violence in Sudan’s civil war, which has already killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says an investigation is under way after drone spotted over government buildings in Warsaw.

Authorities in Poland have said that two Belarusian citizens were detained and a drone was “neutralised” after it was flown over government buildings and the presidential residence in the capital city, Warsaw.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said early on Tuesday that members of the country’s State Protection Services apprehended the two Belarusians, and police were “investigating the circumstances of the incident”.

The Associated Press news agency quoted Colonel Boguslaw Piorkowski, a spokesperson for the protection service, saying that the drone was not shot down by Polish forces but landed after authorities apprehended the operators.

“The impression is that this is not something that flew in from abroad but rather launched locally,” Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz, Poland’s minister of development funds and regional policy, told local media outlet TVN 24, according to the AP.

The minister also advised the public against rushing to conclusions or associating the incident with last week’s high-profile incursion by multiple Russian drones into Polish airspace during an aerial attack on neighbouring Ukraine, the AP reported.

Przed chwilą Służba Ochrony Państwa zneutralizowała drona operującego nad budynkami rządowymi (Parkowa) i Belwederem. Zatrzymano dwóch obywateli Białorusi. Policja bada okoliczności incydentu.

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) September 15, 2025

Translation: Just now, the State Protection Service neutralised a drone operating over government buildings (Parkowa) and the Belweder. Two Belarusian citizens were detained. The police are investigating the circumstances of the incident.

The reported arrest of the Belarusian drone operators by Polish authorities comes as thousands of troops from Belarus and Russia take part in the “Zapad (West) 2025” military drills, which kicked off on Friday and are due to end on Tuesday.

Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, which border Belarus, closed their frontier crossings and bolstered defences in advance of the exercises, which authorities in Minsk said involve 6,000 soldiers from Belarus and 1,000 from Russia.

Poland is also on high alert after last week’s Russian drone incursions, which led to Polish and NATO fighter jets mobilising to defend against what was described as an “unprecedented violation of Polish airspace” by Moscow.

Polish F-16 and Dutch F-35 fighter jets, as well as Italian AWACS surveillance planes, deployed to counter the drones, marking the first time that NATO-allied forces have engaged Russian military assets since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

One of the drones damaged a residential building in Wyryki, eastern Poland, though nobody was reported injured, according to the Reuters news agency.

On Friday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced that the Western military alliance would increase its defence “posture” in Eastern Europe following the Polish airspace violation.

Operation “Eastern Sentry” will include military assets from a range of NATO members, including Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, Rutte said, describing the incursion as “reckless” and “unacceptable”.

Amid the increased tension with Russia, NATO member Romania also reported a drone incursion on Saturday, which led to the scrambling of two F-16 fighter jets as well as two Eurofighters and a warning to Romanian citizens to take cover.

Romanian Minister of National Defence Ionut Mosteanu said the fighter jets came close to shooting down the drone before it exited Romanian airspace into neighbouring Ukraine.

Moscow’s ambassador to Romania was summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday, where Bucharest “conveyed its strong protest against this unacceptable and irresponsible act, which constitutes a violation of [its] sovereignty”.

Russia was “urgently requested… to prevent any future violations”, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Moscow and Minsk insist, however, that the drills are defensive, adding that Western security concerns are ‘nonsense’.

Russia has showcased some of its advanced weapons while conducting a joint military drill with Belarusian troops amid heightened tensions with NATO countries following alleged violations of the airspaces of Poland and Romania by Moscow.

Approximately 7,000 troops, including 6,000 Belarusian soldiers, participated in exercises held at locations in Belarus and Russia.

Russia conducted a test strike with a Kalibr missile from the nuclear submarine named Arkhangelsk in the Barents Sea during the joint Russia-Belarus “Zapad” military drills, Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday. The strike on the designated target was carried out by the submarine from an underwater position, Interfax reported.

Moscow and Minsk insisted on Tuesday that the drills are defensive, meant to simulate a response to an invasion.

But NATO states along the alliance’s eastern flank see them as a threat, particularly after alleged Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace last week. Warsaw has since warned that “open conflict” is closer now than at any point since World War II. Romania on Sunday accused Russia of drone incursion during its attacks on Ukraine.

Britain’s Labour Party-led government on Monday announced its fighter jets will fly air defence missions over Poland to counter aerial threats.

Russia has been at war with Ukraine since it launched a ground invasion in 2022.

Belarus’s Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin dismissed the NATO concerns.

“We have heard a lot of things … that we are threatening NATO, that we are going to invade the Baltic states,” he told reporters at the Barysaw base, east of Minsk. “Simply put, all kinds of nonsense.”

Still, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have stepped up security, closing borders and carrying out counter-drills.

Belarus invites international observers

Belarus allowed rare media access, inviting foreign journalists, TV crews and even US army officers.

“Thank you for the invitation,” Bryan Shoupe, the US military attache, said as he shook hands with the Belarusian defence minister.

“Give the American guests the best places and show them everything that interests them,” the defence minister said. Cameras captured Khrenin shaking hands with two US Army officers, thanking them for attending.

The drills were a tightly choreographed show of force. Camouflaged armoured vehicles splashed across a river, helicopters swooped low over treetops, and young conscripts loaded shells into artillery systems. Others prepared drones for mock strikes.

Reporters were excluded from the naval manoeuvres in the Barents and Baltic seas, as well as the exercises near Grodna, close to the Polish and Lithuanian borders.

Minsk highlighted the limited scale of the drills, stressing that only 7,000 troops were involved. By comparison, the 2021 Zapad exercises included about 200,000 personnel, just months before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Khrenin said the reduced numbers reflected Minsk’s efforts to ease tensions. “We have nothing to hide,” he insisted. “We are only preparing to defend our country.”

Belarus also pointed to the international presence, saying observers from 23 countries attended, many of them long-standing allies of Minsk and Moscow.

US President Donald Trump said he’s “not thrilled” about Israel’s deadly attack on Hamas in Qatar that targeted a residential compound in Doha, where a delegation was meeting to discuss the US’s ceasefire proposal for Gaza.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says military defences deployed after ‘multiple violations of Polish airspace’.

Poland has shot down drones over its territory after repeated violations of its airspace during a Russian aerial attack on neighbouring Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said.

“During today’s attack by the Russian Federation targeting targets in Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drones,” the Polish command said in a statement early on Wednesday.

“At the request of the Operational Commander of the Armed Forces, weapons have been used, and operations are under way to locate the downed targets,” the military said.

The army said that Polish and NATO military aircraft had been mobilised to ensure airspace safety.

“Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness,” the operational command said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that an “operation is under way related to multiple violations of Polish airspace”.

Trwa operacja związana z wielokrotnym naruszeniem polskiej przestrzeni powietrznej. Przeciwko obiektom wojsko użyło uzbrojenia. Jestem w stałym kontakcie z Prezydentem i Ministrem Obrony. Odebrałem bezpośredni meldunek od dowódcy operacyjnego.

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) September 10, 2025

Translation: An operation is under way related to multiple violations of Polish airspace. The military used armaments against the objects. I am in constant contact with the President and the Minister of Defence. I received a direct report from the operational commander.

Earlier, it was reported that four airports in Poland, including its main Chopin airport in Warsaw, were closed due to military activity.

According to notices posted to the US Federal Aviation Administration’s website, the three other airports closed were Rzeszow–Jasionka airport, the Warsaw Modlin airport, and the Lublin airport. Poland’s military did not mention the airport closures.

The military mobilisation in Poland came after Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russian drones had entered Polish airspace, posing a threat to the city of Zamosc, but the air force later removed the statement from its Telegram messaging app.

Most of Ukraine, including the western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, were under air raid alerts for several hours overnight, according to Ukraine’s Air Force data.

Poland said earlier that it planned to close its border with Belarus at midnight local time on Thursday (22:00 GMT, Wednesday) due to Russian-led military exercises scheduled to take place in Belarus.

Russia and Belarus’s large-scale military exercises, known as the “Zapad” drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring NATO member states: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The “Zapad-2025” (West-2025) drills will be held in western Russia and Belarus from Friday.

Asked about the duration of the border closure, Polish Minister of Interior Marcin Kierwinski said it would only be reopened when the government was sure “there was no more threat to Polish citizens”.

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned the Polish charge d’affaires to complain about the border closure, which it said “caused significant difficulties”.

It described Poland’s move as “an abuse of its geographical position”.

“The temporary suspension of passage indicates rather an intention to conceal one’s own actions than the existence of any threat from Belarus,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Lithuania’s border guard said on Tuesday that the protection of its border with Belarus and Russia would be strengthened due to the exercises.