{"id":52539,"date":"2025-07-09T22:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T22:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52539\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T22:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T22:50:11","slug":"nato-jets-scrambled-as-putin-launches-largest-drone-attack-yet-on-ukraine-stoking-fears-of-russia-escalating-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52539\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO jets scrambled as Putin launches largest drone attack yet on Ukraine, stoking fears of Russia escalating production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia unleashed its most intense attack on Ukraine since the beginning of its invasion Tuesday night \u2013 as experts warn the latest launch, prompting\u00a0NATO<\/a>\u00a0jets to scramble into Polish airspace, is evidence of\u00a0Moscow\u2019s ramped-up lethal drone production.<\/p>\n

Russia\u00a0fired 728 Shahed and decoy drones along with 13 cruise and ballistic missiles, more than 200 above the previous record fired on Friday, July Fourth, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday\u00a0<\/p>\n

Christina Harward, a Russia analyst for the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank, told The Post that Tuesday\u2019s barrage shows that Moscow is actively increasing its stockpile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fire rages following a Russian attack in the Kyiv region on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. AP<\/p>\n

A firefighter puts out a fire in Kyiv on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we see record after record being broken nearly every week, it indicates that Moscow has scaled up its production and has a larger stockpile in place, particularly with their new drones,\u201d Harward said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Russia had originally relied on Iran to provide it with the Shaheds, Harward said the Kremlin has demonstrated that the drones are now made inside Russian factories, with deadly modifications.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing decoy drones, which made up about half of last night\u2019s assault, now equipped with actual warheads to keep the Ukrainians guessing,\u201d Harward said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOther drones are also being equipped with chemical weapons to cause damage even when they\u2019re intercepted by Ukraine,\u201d she added.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ukrainian defenses deployed against Russian drones on July 9, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Moscow\u2019s new Geran-2 drone, modeled after the Shaheds, has become the lynchpin of Russia\u2019s escalating bombardments against Ukraine after Moscow began its mass production plan in 2023, according to\u00a0the International Institute for Strategic Studies<\/a>, a London-based think tank.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new drones are cheaper than their Iranian counterpart, giving Russia the ammo it needs to keep up the intense bombardments, the think tank explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces took aim at enemy air bases during the overnight attack and that \u201call the designated targets have been hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump ripped Putin and threatened more sanctions against Russia. AP<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0Ukraine<\/a>\u00a0claimed it downed almost all of the drones, with only some of the hypersonic missiles getting through and hitting targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city of Lutsk, home to key military airfields, was the hardest hit, though 10 other regions were also struck, Ukraine said.<\/p>\n

Every morning, the NY POSTcast <\/a>offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post\u2019s signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

At least one strike was around 100 miles from Ukraine\u2019s border with Poland, which launched military jets along with \u201callied aviation\u201d from other NATO nations.<\/p>\n

Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting on July 8, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIn accordance with applicable procedures, all available forces and resources at the disposal of the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces have been activated, duty fighter pairs have been scrambled, and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness,\u201d Poland\u2019s military wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe measures taken are aimed at ensuring security in areas bordering the threatened regions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The major escalation came a day after President Trump ripped Putin while threatening tougher new sanctions on Russia, including 500% tariffs on countries that buy its oil, gas, uranium and other exports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a lot of bulls\u2013t thrown at us by Putin,\u201d said Trump, who also pledged more weapons to support Ukraine. \u201cHe\u2019s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,\u201d the president told a cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n

The overnight onslaught also came as\u00a0Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>\u00a0is due to meet US envoy Keith Kellogg in Rome on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Zelensky called the airstrikes \u201ca demonstrative attack \u2026 at a time when there have been so many attempts to achieve peace and cease-fire, but Russia rejects everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur partners know how to apply pressure so that Russia will be forced to think about ending the war, not new strikes,\u201d he said, calling for \u201cbiting sanctions\u201d on Putin\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who wants peace must act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Europe is also separately working on a new sanctions package against Moscow.<\/p>\n

Harward said that Russia\u2019s escalating attacks are likely aimed at putting pressure on Ukraine to accept a peace deal on its terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moscow also hopes the attacks can help distract from the realities on the ground that have seen Russia\u2019s invasion slow to a crawl along the frontline that has spanned more than 700 miles, the analysts added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s effectively a show of strength to scare Ukraine at the negotiating table,\u201d Harward said. \u201cRussia is basically saying, \u2018Look up. Don\u2019t look at the situation on the ground.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia unleashed its most intense attack on Ukraine since the beginning of its invasion Tuesday night \u2013 as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":52540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,69,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,257,273,430,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,274,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-52539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-ukraine","18":"tag-ukraine-war","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-vladimir-putin","26":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114825725767020320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}