Nato scrambles jets after Russian strikes near Polish border

Yahoo

8 hours ago

Poland scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace on Monday morning after neighbouring western Ukraine was hit by heavy Russian strikes.
'Due to the intensive air attack by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aircraft began to operate in Polish airspace in the morning,' Warsaw's Operational Command said in a statement on social media.
Russia struck deep beyond the front lines overnight, hitting western Ukraine with dozens of drones and missiles, according to Oleksandr Tretyak, the Rivne mayor.
Ukraine said Russia launched 479 drones and 20 missiles, which would be the war's biggest overnight bombardment.
Russia has recently accelerated its campaign against Ukraine, dampening hopes of a ceasefire after a renewed diplomatic push to end the biggest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.
Poland is one of Ukraine's closest allies, and serves as a crucial logistics hub for Western military aid to Kyiv.
In March last year, Poland, a Nato member, reported a breach of its airspace by a Russian cruise missile, demanding an explanation from Moscow.
A similar incident occurred in December 2023, when a Russian missile penetrated Polish airspace for several minutes before returning to Ukraine.
Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, will on Monday call for a 'quantum leap' in defence capacities including a '400 per cent increase' in air and missile defence that 'protects' the alliance against Russia.
'We see in Ukraine how Russia delivers terror from above, so we will strengthen the shield that protects our skies,' he will say in a speech to the Chatham House think tank in London, according to comments released in a statement.
Ahead of his speech, Mr Rutte will meet Sir Keir Starmer for their second Downing Street talks since Labour came to power last summer.
His comments come ahead of a Nato summit in the Netherlands this month.
Donald Trump, the US president, is pressing alliance members to increase their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, up from the current target of 2 per cent.
Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, said last week in Brussels the allies were close to an agreement on the 5 per cent target, which could be formalised at the summit in The Hague.
Nato members have been racing to bolster their defence capabilities since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
'Danger will not disappear even when the war in Ukraine ends,' Mr Rutte will say. 'We must have more forces and capabilities to implement our defence plans in full. Our militaries also need thousands more armoured vehicles and tanks, millions more artillery shells.
'Nato has to become a stronger, fairer and more lethal alliance.'
Last week, Britain announced plans to build as many as 12 nuclear-powered attack submarines and six munitions factories, to rearm in response to what it said were threats from Russia.
Earlier this year, the Government pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, but has not yet set a firm timeline for further increases.
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