Russia Ukraine war latest: Nato responds after Russian drones breach Romania and Latvia airspace

The city of Kostyantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk has become one of the main targets of relentless Russian attacks to capture the remaining strongholds held by Kyiv’s troops in the region.

Explosions are almost ever-present in and around the city, whether direct shelling attacks, or the sound of artillery batteries firing hundreds of rounds on the front line, reinforcing the sense that something catastrophic is approaching.

Kostyantynivka is one of the few remaining towns of any size still in Ukrainian hands in the region. And it is now perilously close to the front lines. Outgoing Ukrainian fire could also be heard south of the city with a distinctive rapid whoosh-whoosh-whoosh signifying, says one civilian, one of the highly accurate US-provided multiple rocket launchers at work.

Russian attacks are being ramped up across the area – from the commanding heights of Chasiv Yar, less than 10 miles to the northeast, to the mining town of Toretsk, whose slag heaps can be seen eight miles to the south, and Pokrovsk – the key target for Moscow at the moment – some 33 miles to the southwest along a route already vulnerable to shelling by the approaching Russians.

A local businessman, Petro, says: “Our city has been a target for the Russians since 2014, but they have been hitting us hard, smashing away at Kostyantynivka since the start of the full-blown invasion in 2022. There has been an increase in their attacks since August and perhaps the Ukrainian invasion into Russia has made [the Russian troops] more ferocious and so they’re firing more. That’s how it feels.”

Askold Krushelnycky has more in this dispatch from Kostyantynivka:

Vladimir Putin sent greetings to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the occasion of North Korea’s founding anniversary, state media KCNA reported today. He was joined by his Chinese ally and president Xi Jinping.

“I am sure that the comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and the DPRK will be strengthened in a planned way thanks to our joint efforts,” Mr Putin said, referring to the North’s official name – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Mr Xi called for deeper strategic communication and cooperation with North Korea in his message, KCNA said.

On the same day last year, Kim marked the country’s founding with a parade of paramilitary groups and diplomatic exchanges in which he vowed to deepen ties with China and Russia.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down six out of eight drones and two out of three missiles during the latest overnight attack by Russia.

Vladimir Putin’s forces launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, and the city’s air defence units were engaged in repelling the strikes, Ukraine’s military said on Telegram.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has warned against a cyber group belonging to a Russian military intelligence (GRU) unit known as 29155, saying it has carried out cyberattacks against Nato and EU countries.

In a post on social media platform X today, the Bundesverfassungsschutz said it was issuing the warning alongside the FBI, US cybersecurity agency CISA, the NSA and other international partners.

“The actor is also said to have attacked networks in Nato member states in Europe and North America, as well as countries in Latin America and Central Asia. The activities included both destructive actions and scanning and data theft,” it said in a statement.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for Russia’s war against Ukraine to end as soon as possible, adding that he and Volodymyr Zelensky agree on the need to include Russia in future peace negotiations.

“There will certainly be a further peace conference, and the president and I agree that it must be one with Russia present,” Mr Scholz said, talking to Germany’s ZDF public television.

“I believe that now is the moment when we must discuss how we get out of this war situation faster than the current impression is,” he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his call for the removal of restrictions on using Western-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory, adding that Ukraine was ramping up its own weapons production.

“We are setting up underground weapons production facilities so Ukrainian soldiers can defend themselves, even if supplies from our partners are delayed,” the Ukrainian president said on Saturday.

“We have developed new drones and missiles, and we are gradually bringing this war back to Russia. Eventually, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will feel the pressure to seek only one thing: peace.”

Ukraine foreign minister Andrii Sybiha called Russian drone incursions “a reminder (that) the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation go beyond Ukraine’s borders.”

“The collective response of the Allies should be maximum support for Ukraine now, to put an end to (Russian aggression), protect lives and preserve peace in Europe,” Sybiha said in a post on X.

A drone entered Romanian territory early yesterday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, Romania’s ministry of national defence reported, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day.

Bucharest deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions, officials said.

It said investigations were underway at a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

A senior Nato official has condemned Russia’s violation of Romanian airspace after the European nation scrambled F-16 fighter jets for Russian drones.

Mircea Geoană, Nato’s outgoing deputy secretary general and Romania’s former top diplomat, said: “While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous.”

In a similar stance, Latvia’s military said there were no indications that Moscow or Minsk purposely sent a drone into the country.

While the incursion into Latvian airspace appeared to be a rare incident, Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, as recently as July this year.

Since 6 August, when Ukraine began its cross-border attack, Russian forces have advanced several miles towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region.

If Russia eventually seizes it, it will be the largest population centre it has taken since Bakhmut last May, after months of heavy urban warfare.

Nevertheless, the loss of Pokrovsk could have an even costlier effect.

The city, a logistical hub for the country’s military, sits at the junction of two major roads through the region. Its capture is seen as key to the Russian military prosecuting Vladimir Putin’s objective of taking the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, known as Donbas.

Russia’s military appears to have thrown resources at the effort, possibly at the expense of defending its own civilians in Kursk. As one analyst put it, Putin’s “eye of Sauron”, a reference to Lord of the Rings, has been trained on Donetsk, and particularly Pokrovsk, even as his own country is being invaded.

Our foreign affairs reporter Tom Watling has more in this report:

The international world order is under threat in a way not seen since the Cold War, the heads of MI6 and the CIA have warned.

In the first joint op-ed penned by the leaders of the British and American intelligence services in their shared 77-year history, the MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore and CIA director William Burns warned that both countries now “face an unprecedented array of threats”.

Writing in the Financial Times, the intelligence leaders reflected on their decades of cooperation over the course of two world wars and in their fight against terrorism, warning: “The challenges of the past are being accelerated in the present, and compounded by technological change.”

“There is no question that the international world order – the balanced system that has led to relative peace and stability and delivered rising living standards, opportunities and prosperity – is under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the cold war,” they wrote.