live blog
Against the backdrop of Russia’s war of aggression, the largest NATO maneuver in decades begins. Poland’s Prime Minister Tusk traveled to Kiev for talks. The developments in the live blog.
The new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has arrived in Kiev for talks. He will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Schmhal, the Polish agency PAP reported. In Kiev, Tusk first wanted to commemorate the Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russia’s war of aggression. As usual, the trip had not been made public beforehand for security reasons.
Poland has provided vigorous military support to its neighbor Ukraine since the Russian attack in February 2022 and has taken in the largest number of refugees. There are problems because Polish farmers and hauliers feel threatened by Ukrainian competition. Liberal Prime Minister Tusk, a former EU Council President, took office last December.
Ukraine says it fended off eight Russian attack drones on Monday night. Moscow attacked from the Russian region of Primorsko-Akhtarsk on the western bank of the Sea of Azov, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Accordingly, the Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down by defense systems in several southern and central regions of Ukraine. There have so far been no reports of damage caused by falling debris.
The drone attack followed several attacks on oil depots in the Russian border region, about which Kiev has not yet officially commented. However, sources in the Ukrainian security services spoke to the AFP news agency about some of these attacks. On Sunday, Russia reported a fire in a gas terminal in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga. The operator Nowatak cited an “external factor” as the cause of the fire.
Against the backdrop of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the largest NATO maneuver in decades begins today. In the military exercise “Steadfast Defender” around 90,000 soldiers from 31 alliance states and the candidate country Sweden will be drilling until the end of May.
According to the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Rob Bauer, the military alliance is preparing for a conflict with Russia and terrorist groups with the exercise.
According to Russian information, the Ukrainian military has attacked the Moscow-occupied Crimean peninsula with missiles. Russia has captured a small village in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine. Sunday’s live blog for reading.