The Czech president, Petr Pavel, has said Nato must respond adequately to Russian airspace violations, including potentially by shooting down Russian jets. “Russia will realise very quickly that they have made a mistake and crossed the acceptable boundaries. Unfortunately, this is teetering on the edge of conflict, but giving in to evil is simply not an option.” The comments were published by the Czech News Agency and picked up by the Associated Press.
Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, has said security guarantees for Ukraine, which are being discussed by the so-called “coalition of the willing”, would compel the European countries that sign to fight Russia if Moscow launched military action against Ukraine again in future.
British fighter jets have flown their first Nato air defence sortie over Poland as part of the Eastern Sentry mission following Russian drone incursions. The two RAF Typhoons took off from England on Friday night to patrol the Polish skies.
Ukrainian drones have hit an oil refinery in the Samara region, south-western Russia, according to the local Russian governor and Ukraine’s military general staff. The Ukrainians announced their strike on the Novokuibyshevsk refinery which provides about 2.5% of all Russian oil refining. The general staff added that Ukrainian special forces struck a production and transit station in Samara for the export-grade Urals oil that comprises up to 50% of the total volume of Russian exports. “All affected facilities are involved in providing support to the Russian armed forces,” said the general staff. The local Russian governor said four people were killed.
The Samara strikes took place on Friday night around the same time Ukrainian UAVs once again blasted Russia’s Saratov oil refinery. A source in Ukraine’s SBU security agency said Ukrainian drone strikes “have stopped the operation of a number of oil pumping stations in Russia”. “It is this infrastructure that brings oil-dollar superprofits to the Russian budget, which fuel the war against Ukraine. Work to block these cashflows will continue.”
