reclaiming its own<\/a> adjacent region of Kursk from a Ukrainian counteroffensive last March.<\/p>\nThis month, Russia redeployed some of its elite paratrooper and marine units from Sumy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sumy operation has failed. They suffered significant losses, primarily in manpower,\u201d said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a news conference in Kyiv last week. \u201cToday, they have abandoned this direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite these retreats, Russia is still making net gains of Ukrainian territory. In August, it captured 499sq km (190sq miles), according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.<\/p>\n
Ukraine is trying to cut off the Russian military\u2019s fuel supply, and has scored some successes in recent days.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian long-distance drones hit the Salavat and Volgograd refineries on September 18, said Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine\u2019s Center for Countering Disinformation.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Ukraine\u2019s General Staff said their unmanned systems forces and intelligence services hit a fuel mixing station in Samara, \u201cwhere high- and low-density oil from different sources is being mixed to form the export grade of Urals oil\u201d.<\/p>\n
They also hit a compressor station along the \u201cSteel Horse\u201d pipeline in the border region of Bryansk vital to the supply of the Russian army, and two planes at the Kacha military airbase in Crimea.<\/p>\n
Russian air defences reportedly downed 150 Ukrainian drones in various parts of the country, 33 of them headed for Moscow.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Europe prepared a 19th package of sanctions to cut off Russian revenues from energy exports. At Trump\u2019s behest, it included a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas beginning in 2027.<\/p>\n
Europe bought more than $8bn worth of Russian LNG last year, and was to ban it in 2028.<\/p>\n
Western powers slam Russia\u2019s \u2018extremely dangerous provocation\u2019<\/p>\n
On Friday, three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, the Estonian General Staff said, flying east to west parallel with Estonia\u2019s north coast. Estonia said its transponders were disabled, preventing communication.<\/p>\n
Italian F-35s stationed in Estonia scrambled to intercept them.<\/p>\n
NATO spokesperson Alison Hart said it was \u201cirresponsible behaviour\u201d and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called it an \u201cextremely dangerous provocation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia has violated Estonian airspace four times already this year, which is unacceptable in itself, but today\u2019s violation, during which three fighter jets entered our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen,\u201d Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia\u2019s increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Russian jets also made a low pass over the Petrobaltic oil platform in the Baltic Sea, which belongs to Poland.<\/p>\n
Russia denied violating Estonian sovereignty. \u201cThe flight was conducted in strict accordance with the International Rules for the Use of Airspace, without violating the borders of foreign states,\u201d said the Russian defence ministry.<\/p>\n
The incident came nine days after two dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace and had to be shot down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not accidental incidents. The Russians will continue trying to spread their aggression, their destabilization, and their interference,\u201d Zelenskyy said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The next day, Germany scrambled two Eurofighters to intercept a Russian aircraft in its Baltic Sea airspace flying without a flight plan or radio contact. Visual contact confirmed it was an Ilyushin II 20-M reconnaissance aircraft.<\/p>\n
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper reprimanded Russia at the UN General Assembly, which kicked off on Monday. \u201cYour reckless actions risk direct armed confrontation between NATO and Russia. Our alliance is defensive but be under no illusion we stand ready to defend NATO\u2019s skies and NATO\u2019s territory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
On the same day, Poland announced it would shoot down unauthorised aircraft in its airspace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will take the decision to shoot down flying objects when they violate our territory and fly over Poland \u2013 there is absolutely no discussion about that,\u201d Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference.<\/p>\n
But he cautioned,\u00a0\u201cWhen we\u2019re dealing with situations that aren\u2019t entirely clear, such as the recent flight of Russian fighter jets over the Petrobaltic platform \u2013 but without any violation, because these aren\u2019t our territorial waters \u2013 you really need to think twice before deciding on actions that could trigger a very acute phase of conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, NATO said it would deploy all means necessary to defend itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia should be in no doubt: NATO and Allies will employ, in accordance with international law, all necessary military and non-military tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats from all directions,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Ukraine does not appear to be waiting for NATO. Last week, it announced a joint task force with Poland to coordinate closer cooperation on drone research, training and manufacture.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy on Friday said Ukraine was preparing to export some of its weapons production to create revenue for weapons it still needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already have certain types of weapons in much larger quantities than we actually need today in Ukraine,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, naval drones that the world counts on and that we have in surplus, as well as antitank weapons and some other types.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine would sell to Europe, the US and global partners, Zelenskyy said, but ensure that none of its weapons were re-exported to end up in enemy hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the past week, Russia has ramped up a diplomacy of intimidation in the Baltic Sea using planes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,12,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-449354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","14":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115262564919868680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Local](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-22T121241Z_974876551_RC2YWGA4R47I_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-CRIMEA-1758701799.jpg\")
Local officials take pictures inside a school that was damaged yesterday in what authorities called a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in the town of Foros, Crimea, on September 22, 2025 [Alexey Pavlishak\/Reuters]<\/p>\n