Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has stated that NATO is “de facto involved” in the Russo-Ukrainian war due to Western support for Ukraine. “NATO is at war with Russia. This is obvious and does not require any additional proof,” Peskov said, according to a report from the TASS news agency.
The Russian embassy in Bucharest has labelled a drone intrusion into Romanian airspace “a provocation” by Ukraine. This follows the summoning of the Russian ambassador to the Romanian foreign ministry over the incident. In a statement, the embassy claimed Ambassador Vladimir Lipaïev dismissed the Romanian protest as “baseless,” suggesting the event was “a deliberate provocation by the Kyiv regime.”
In a related development, the Russian ambassador to London was summoned to the UK Foreign Office. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper protested what she termed a “significant and unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace” by Russian drones and the “subsequent incursion into Romania.” A UK government statement expressed “unreserved condemnation of these reckless actions,” praised NATO’s collective response, and reiterated that “Russia must end its illegal war in Ukraine.”
On the ground, Ukrainian authorities reported that twelve people were wounded in a Russian missile strike on an agricultural enterprise in the Sumy region late yesterday. The regional military administration head, Oleg Hrygorov, stated on Telegram that the attack occurred around 11:00 PM, injuring workers engaged in harvesting.
Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry claimed its air defence systems destroyed or intercepted six Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over the Belgorod region overnight.
Adding to the escalating rhetoric, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev issued a stark warning on Telegram. He stated that any move by NATO countries to shoot down Russian drones over Ukraine would equate to the alliance declaring war on Russia, calling the idea of a “no-fly zone” a “provocative concept from Kyiv and other idiots.”
In a separate political comment, former U.S. President Donald Trump, when asked about mediating a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, said, “Whether you call it a summit or just a meeting, it doesn’t matter, but I’ll probably have to convince them because they hate each other so much that they can barely speak. They are incapable of talking to each other.”