Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
Russia and Belarus continued rehearsing what they called a defensive scenario against an imagined western invasion on Belarus – in effect Nato – today, prompting security concerns in the region (12:04, 12:35, 13:11, 15:54, 17:12).
The drills are taking place just days after Russian drone incursion into Polish and Romanian airspace, drawing widespread condemnation across Europe and calls for stronger sanctions on Russia (11:33, 12:23, 13:29).
UK Typhoon fighter jets will fly air defence missions over Poland as part of Nato’s new Eastern Sentry mission, the UK government has confirmed (18:27), joining other countries, including Germany, in announcing new support for Poland.
The European Union defended its plans for phasing out Russian fossil fuels after US president Donald Trump’s suggested they should be radically accelerated to force Moscow to negotiate the end of its invasion of Ukraine (12:17).
Sweden’s government said it was boosting its defence budget by 26.6bn kronor ($2.9bn) next year, putting defence spending at 2.8 percent of GDP (16:32).
In other news,
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has called for Israel to be barred from international sports competitions as he sympathised with pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the last stage of the Vuelta a España cycling race in Madrid (14:25), prompting criticism from Denmark (15:18).
Spain has also threatened to boycott next year’s Eurovision song contest if Israel takes part, with the country’s culture minister Ernest Urtasun insisting that “if we don’t succeed in expelling Israel, Spain should not participate” (11:17).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
UK announcement on Typhoons not a surprise, but still an important signal - snap analysis
The UK announcement is not entirely unexpected, given the UK’s history of running air policing operations in the region, including Poland and Romania, and we reported on the first signals of this potentially coming last week.
UK defence secretary, John Healey, first hinted at this already on Wednesday, just hours after the drone incursion, when he said he’d asked the UK armed forces “to look at options about how we can bolster that Nato air defence over Poland” (Europe Live, Wednesday).
Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, later confirmed that he discussed these plans with UK prime minister Starmer on Friday (Europe Live, Friday).
Still, it’s a clear signal of intent and support for Poland and Romania – particularly as it comes just hours after the UK summoned the Russian ambassador to protest against these recent incidents (13:29).
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