Ukraine-Russia war latest: UK tells UN it will confront Putin’s planes if they violate Nato airspace

Estonian officials have shared details of Russia’s airspace incursions from Friday at an emergency meeting called by the UN Security Council.

“Russian fighter jets were warned as they neared Estonian and Nato airspace. Despite the warnings, they crossed the border and remained for 12 minutes, and 100km in. That is a lot,” said Margus Tsahkna, the Estonian foreign affairs minister.

“By doing so, Russia – a permanent member of the UN Security Council – blatantly and recklessly violated Estonia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the UN Charter and international law,” he said.

The Estonian official also showed two photos of Russian fighter jets inside the country’s airspace, mapping the direction where they came from.

“All of them carried missiles and they were combat-ready planes,” the Estonian minister said.

Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper addressed her remarks at the UN Security Council yesterday directly to Russian president Vladimir Putin, warning him over his “reckless actions” and promising the UK will confront Russian planes violating Nato airspace.

Here’s an excerpt from her speech at the council:

“To President Putin, I say: your reckless actions risk a direct armed confrontation between Nato and Russia. Our Alliance is defensive.

“We stand ready to take all steps necessary to defend Nato’s skies and Nato’s territory. We are vigilant. We are resolute.

“And if we need to confront planes that are operating in Nato airspace without permission then we will do so.

“The United Kingdom stands by our friends,” the foreign secretary said.

She also said the Russian drones violating Polish, Romanian and Estonian airspaces “risk miscalculation”.

“At worst, they are a deliberate attempt to undermine the territorial integrity of sovereign nations and European security. They risk miscalculation,” she said.

“They open the door to direct armed confrontation between Nato and Russia,” the foreign secretary said.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin said his proposal on extending the nuclear arms limitation deal was in the interests of global non-proliferation and could help spur dialogue with Washington about arms control.

“This measure will only be viable if the United States acts in a similar manner, and does not take steps that undermine or violate the existing balance of deterrence capabilities,” Putin said.

The proposal appears to be a unilateral change of policy by Moscow, which has until now insisted it would engage with Washington on such matters only if overall ties – hampered by stark differences over the war in Ukraine – improved.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he discussed procurement of weapons from the United States with US envoy Keith Kellogg.

“I briefed him (Kellogg) on the situation at the front and the results of the counteroffensive operation near Dobropillia and Pokrovsk,” Zelensky said on X.

He added: “We also touched on the development of cooperation between Ukraine and the United States, including mutually beneficial agreements on drones and on the procurement of American weapons that Ukraine has proposed to the United States.”

Russian leader Vladimir Putin had declared he is ready to adhere to nuclear arms limits for one more year under the last remaining nuclear pact with the United States that expires in February.

Mr Putin said, in televised comments, that allowing the New START agreement signed in 2010 to expire would be destabilising and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“To avoid provoking a further strategic arms race and to ensure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint, we believe it is justified to try to maintain the status quo established by the New START Treaty during the current, rather turbulent period,” he said.

He said Russia was prepared to stick by the treaty’s limits for one more year after it expires on 5 February next year.

Arms control advocates long have voiced concern about the treaty’s looming expiration.

Mr Putin said maintaining limits on nuclear weapons could also be an important step in “creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the US”.

Russian jets reportedly “ignored” signals from Nato pilots after violating Estonian airspace on Friday.

The 12-minute incursion represents the latest test of the alliance’s response to Russian airborne threats, after around 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on 10 September.

It still “needs to be confirmed,” if the border violation was deliberate or not, Col. Ants Kiviselg, the commander of Estonia’s Military Intelligence Center, told The Associated Press. Regardless, he said, the Russian jets “must have known that they are in (Estonian) airspace.”

Ukrainian soldiers are increasingly deploying agile, remote-controlled armoured vehicles to carry out battlefield tasks in a bid to evade Russian drones.

The machines are capable of carrying essential supplies, clearing dangerous mines, and evacuating both the wounded and the deceased amid a shortage of Ukrainian soldiers.

“It cannot fully replace people,” said the commander of a platoon of the 20th Lyubart Brigade who goes by the call sign Miami and spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military rules. “I would put it this way: A person can go in there, but for a human it’s (sometimes) far too dangerous.”

You can read the full report below…

Russia is banned from participating in Eurovision, but the country has come up with its own version – Intervision.

Last year, a Russian government spokesman last year said the Western version of the song contest “surpassed any ­orgy, coven or ritual sacrifice”.

“Eurovision pales in comparison to Intervision,” lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told Russian state news agency Tass. “(It) destroys the myth of Russian isolation.”

You can read more about the song contest and its inaugural winner below…

Rachel Reeves, the UK Chancellor, will announce plans to explore using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort.

It comes after Russia’s recent incursion into Estonian airspace, where three MiG-31 fighter jets remained without permission for 12 minutes, causing global outrage.

Ms Reeves said it was “Russia’s war, and Russia should pay,” and highlighted the defence of Ukraine as vital for the long-term security of the UK and Europe.