Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump says patience with Putin ‘running out fast’ after Poland drone incursion – UK Times

After announcing the beefing up of Nato’s eastern flank, the military alliance’s chief Mark Rutte said the focus of the immediate new operation is Poland as “what affects one Ally affects us all”.

He said the situation in Poland due to Russia’s drone incursions two days ago “transcends the borders of one nation”.

The alliance’s chief said the aim of the operation is to integrate air and ground-based defences, increase information sharing among Nato allies, incorporate unspecified enhanced capabilities, and strengthen Nato’s posturing to protect the alliance.

Russian and Belarusian troops began a major joint military exercise yesterday for the first time since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The joint exercises are set to occur in Russia and Belarus, including Belarus’ Vitebsk, Minsk, and Grodno oblasts, and in the Baltic and Barents seas from 12 to 16 September.

The Zapad 2025 exercises consist of two stages, with the first consisting of air and ground defence operations, and the second including exercises to clear the territory of enemy forces and conducting counteroffensive operations, according to Belarusian Chief of the General Staff Pavel Muraveiko.

Both countries have carried out these joint exercises biannually, but cancelled the Zapad 2023 drills, likely due to Russia’s equipment and manpower requirements for its war in Ukraine.

The latest joint exercise also appears to be notably much smaller than the 2021 drills, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Russia’s offensive in Sumy Oblast has been “completely thwarted”, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.

“As of today, we can state that the Russian offensive operation on Sumy has been completely thwarted by our forces,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address.

“Fighting continues in the border areas of Sumy Oblast, but the Russian group in the Sumy area has lost offensive capabilities due to the losses suffered,” he said.

The region has been a key target for Moscow’s troops since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022 due to its location on the northeastern frontier, and faces near-daily strikes.

However, Kyiv says it has maintained control over most of the region.

On the face of it, the intrusion of Russian drones into Polish airspace overnight would appear to be an open and shut case for invoking Nato’s famous Article 5, which, as commonly summed up, means that an attack on one is deemed an attack on all and warrants a corresponding response.

This guarantee is much of the reason why, after the Soviet Union’s collapse, the newly independent states of eastern and central Europe wanted to join the alliance, and why Ukraine is so keen to do so now. Nato and Article 5 are seen as the gold standard of security guarantees.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, was quick to warn that his country is at its closest to open conflict since the end of the Second World War. The incursion into Polish airspace was, he said, “a test Nato has to answer”.

President Trump has said he had long had a good relationship with Putin, but expressed frustration at his failure to end the war.

“We’re going to have to come down very, very strong,” he told Fox News.

Trump said sanctions on banks and oil were an option, along with tariffs, but European countries also needed to participate.

“But I’ve already done it. I’ve done a lot,” Trump said, noting that India – one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil – was facing a 50% tariff on its exports to the U.S.

The European Union’s next package of sanctions against Russia must be “as tough as possible”, Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said during a visit to Kyiv on Friday.

Denmark, which holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency will push for the adoption of a 19th round of sanctions during its term which ends in December, Mr Lokke said.

“It must be a full-fledged sanctions package, addressing circumvention, the shadow fleet, the financial sector… we also need stronger transatlantic cooperation,” he told a joint press conference with Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha in Kyiv.

Rasmussen said that Denmark would also welcome any initiative from the United States on sanctions.

He added that the Nordic country would encourage more Ukrainian defence companies to establish themselves in Denmark in order to start production there.

“We are actually in dialogue with quite a few Ukrainian companies,” he said.

The Danish government earlier this month said that Ukrainian Fire Point, maker of Flamingo missiles, will start producing fuel for long-range missiles in Denmark, marking the first expansion abroad by a Ukrainian defence company.

There can be no mistake with such a large-scale attack on Poland, a Polish official said in response to US president Donald Trump’s suggestion that Wednesday’ Russian drone incursion might have been accidental.

“I think this is a message that should reach President Trump today: there’s no question of a mistake – this was a deliberate Russian attack,” deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk told local TV broadcaster Polsat News.

Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who visits Kyiv on Friday, also responded to Trump’s words. “On the night that 19 Russian drones crossed into Poland, 400 (drones) plus 40 missiles crossed into Ukraine. These were not mistakes,” he said in a video posted on X.

At Poland’s request, the UN Security Council will meet in New York on Friday. The meeting will begin at 3pm local time (8pm UK time), Polish foreign affairs ministry said.