According to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union is confronted with an âopenly hostile worldâ. A war of territorial aggression is raging on the European continent, while other conflicts have broken out nearby, said von der Leyen during her State of the Union speech in Strasbourg. In addition, a battle for industrial capacities is shaping global competition, and a battle of narratives is trying to weaken trust in Europe.
At least five people on a bus were killed in Russian drone attacks in southern Ukraine. Another seven passengers were injured, according to the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Alexander Hanscha. Hanscha said the injured would receive medical care and accused Russia of terrorism. Russian attacks were also reported again in Kyiv. Warehouses there were on fire and one person was injured.
In the Mykolaiv region, a Russian drone hit passenger train No. 122 on the Kiev-Mykolaiv route. All occupants were able to get to safety in time and there were no injuries. However, the train caught fire. According to the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense system, Russia attacked a total of 80 flying objects, more than 60 of which were neutralized. Ukraine also complains that hundreds of locomotives have been damaged or destroyed in the recent increased attacks on trains and railway systems.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine has successfully tested a new, self-developed weapon to defend against drones. During an operation at night, a hit was scored and a âShahedâ drone was destroyed, Zelensky said in his evening video speech on Tuesday. âHowever, some technical details still need to be refined,â he continued. âWe need a little more time.â Work on further developments will continue.
According to Zelensky, 93 percent of all Russian drones were intercepted that night. "That's considerable. But of course more is needed," he said. Since the start of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022, Ukraine has been increasingly developing its own drone defense technologies, focusing on interceptor missiles as an efficient and cheaper means. However, the Ukrainian armed forces have greater difficulties defending against Russian ballistic missiles. The government in Kiev has therefore asked its Western allies to supply additional interception systems.
A drone captured by NATO fighter jets over Lithuania was loaded with explosives. This was announced by Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas. The explosive device was defused by special forces, Kaunas wrote on Facebook. The drone continues to be examined and analyzed.
In Lithuania on Tuesday night, an unmanned flying object was brought down from the sky by Italian Eurofighters over a rural area near the village of Pratkunai. There were no injuries or damage. The authorities had previously alerted the population of several regions of the Baltic EU and NATO country about a possible threat from the air.
There was initially no more precise information about the origin and type of the drone that was shot down.
After intense Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced stronger protection for the railways. âAlthough the Russians consider our railway one of their main goals, Ukrainian railways continue to function at a high level,â the head of state said. He thanked the railway employees for their âextremely professional and courageous workâ. Logistics will be maintained despite delays and the damage caused.
Zelensky promised additional protective measures for railway facilities and also for railway border crossings. He spoke about this with Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyj and other government representatives. âThis is not an abstract question, it is about the life of Ukraine,â Zelensky emphasized. Last weekend, a Russian drone hit a locomotive at the Jahodin border station in western Ukraine. Shortly beforehand, according to Ukrainian information, a train carrying former Western government officials and diplomats passed through the station.
A man and a woman were killed in a Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk. Another woman was injured, the head of the city's military administration, Vadym Lyach, said on Facebook. Three residential buildings were damaged.
The United Nations (UN) is considering moving its aid supplies in Ukraine to underground bunkers due to ongoing Russian air strikes. This year, Russian attacks have hit ten of the organization's warehouses and destroyed aid supplies worth millions of dollars, the UN coordinator for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, told the Reuters news agency in Geneva.
Among the facilities hit is a World Health Organization (WHO) main warehouse with medical supplies. The UN is also examining the purchase of armored vehicles and drone defense systems. The additional costs are not included in the aid budget of $2.3 billion for 2026.
According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russian air defense intercepted 222 Ukrainian drones on Tuesday night. Rostov Region Governor Yuri Slyussar said a heavy Ukrainian drone attack caused several fires in the city of Taganrog. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian military had attacked a drone factory in the city.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sees recent incidents in Lithuania and Denmark as a larger pattern of Russian aggression against Europe. The incidents were not isolated, but âpart of a broader pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe that is testing our preparedness and our resolve,â von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
âRussia will find that our resolve only grows stronger.â According to the authorities, NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that had entered the airspace in Lithuania. In Denmark, an Air Force helicopter was fired at with flares while observing a Russian frigate in the Baltic Sea, according to the Foreign Ministry.
According to Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, the Western defense alliance NATO will consistently defend itself against violations of sovereignty such as those caused by the drone in Lithuania. âWe are again seeing hostilities from the Russian side, against NATO allies,â Wadephul said on the sidelines of a United Nations visit to Geneva. âIt shows once again what Russia is trying to do: it is trying to divide us and unsettle us, and neither should succeed.â NATO has shown that it can repel such attacks. âWe wonât let ourselves be unsettled,â said Wadephul.
Russia warns Western politicians and diplomats against traveling to Ukraine. You should weigh the risks âsoberly,â warns Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The background is a Russian drone attack on a railway line that a train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Swedish former Prime Minister Carl Bildt had recently passed. Zakharova says train stations and transport infrastructure for the Ukrainian military are legitimate targets. In May, Russia asked foreign diplomats to leave Kiev because of the attacks on defense factories.
After the recent Russian drone attacks on a train from Kiev to Warsaw and on the Ukrainian border region, Poland wants to fortify its border crossings with Ukraine. âThe events of the past few days show that Russia's actions endanger the security of all of Europe,â wrote Poland's Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz on
These are military-used baskets made of metal and plastic film that are filled with sand. In addition, additional observation and guard posts are to be built near the Dorohusk, Medyka and Korczowa border crossings. According to the Ukrainian Railways, the locomotive of the regular passenger train from Kiev to Warsaw was attacked at the Jahodyn border station on Sunday. Nobody was injured.
The Ukrainian military is slow to announce successful counterattacks in the north of the Donetsk region. The commander of the 3rd Army Corps, Andriy Bilezkyj, reported in a video that Russian shock troops that had infiltrated into several villages north of the city of Lyman had been eliminated over an area of ââ75 square kilometers. Ukrainian troops recaptured the village of Serednje and an area of ââten square kilometers from Russian troops.
However, this was only part of the offensive codenamed âVivaldi,â Bilezkyj said. Because of the strict secrecy on the Ukrainian side, there had been hardly any news from this region since early summer. Only in the past few days, photos and video footage verified by military experts made it clear that Ukraine had managed to secure the city of Lyman and repel a major advance by Russian forces.
Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers have carried out patrol flights over neutral waters of the Barents and Norwegian Seas, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. The planes were temporarily escorted by foreign fighter planes, Russian news agencies report, citing the ministry.
The Ukrainian parliament has voted to dismiss Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. A clear majority of 317 MPs supported a corresponding request from President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kravchenko submitted his resignation about a week ago in connection with a corruption scandal in his office, but spoke of it as a âpolitical decisionâ.
On Monday, he made allegations against the Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities in a video and called on their heads to resign. He also stated that he was on a business trip abroad. Zelensky called on MPs to fire Kravchenko as quickly as possible.
According to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russia will not stop fighting in Ukraine even in the event of peace talks. Lavrov says the so-called âmilitary operationâ will continue during such negotiations. Ukraine, on the other hand, is calling for a ceasefire as a basis for negotiations.
A Russian frigate fired two flares at a Danish military helicopter in international waters off the Danish coast on Thursday, according to reports from Copenhagen. The NATO military said the bullets narrowly missed the helicopter. The helicopter was on a routine mission to photograph the Russian frigate. The illumination ammunition is pyrotechnics, which is usually used as a warning signal at sea, the statement continued. Denmark wants to summon the Russian ambassador because of the incident. Defense Minister Jeppe Bruus announced this on the Danish broadcaster TV2. There is currently no Russian statement.
Russia has again attacked the Ukrainian capital Kiev with drones, hitting a gas station again. One person was injured, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Tuesday on the short message service Telegram. A warehouse was also hit. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russia has recently expanded its attacks on gas stations. The authorities in Russia reported new Ukrainian attacks. In the southern Russian port city of Taganrog, a rocket attack again damaged, among other things, a warehouse belonging to the online retailer Ozon. In addition, a drone attack hit an industrial plant in the Samara region on the Volga. It was not mentioned which facility it was. There are large oil refineries in the region.
Ukraine attacked an industrial plant in Russia with drones last night. The facility and several residential buildings in the Samara region in the southeast of the country were damaged, the Russian news agency Tass reported, citing regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev. There were no fatalities. Around 40 drones were shot down. According to Ukrainian reports, the industrial facility was an oil refinery.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine would refrain from attacking rival energy facilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj wrote on There was initially no reaction from Moscow.
