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A Russian military plane has breached Finnish airspace for the first time since the country joined Nato, flying at least 2.5km inside the country’s territory, officials in Finland said.
Russia confirmed that it had multiple bombers and missile carriers operating in the Baltic region but did not specifically comment on the alleged airspace breach.
Finland’s defence ministry said one of the aircraft entered Finland’s airspace for approximately two minutes on Monday morning. Finnish officials said they are taking the “suspected territorial violation seriously” and an investigation has been started.
The Kremlin uses such operations to deliberately undermine Finland’s territorial and sovereign integrity, the US-based think-tank The Institute for the Study of War said.
It comes after Kyiv said it had struck a Russian Su-57 stealth fighter worth up to £28m around 370 miles from the frontline using long-range drones.
On Tuesday, Germany is hosting a two-day conference to gather support for Ukraine’s recovery in a signal of solidarity witth Kyiv.
Task of supporting Ukraine’s recovery ‘too big to be tackled by governments alone’
Ahead of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, where support will be gathered for Kyiv from governments and businesses, the German development minister Svenja Schulze has said governments need support of companies and civil societies.
It said assisting Kyiv in its short and long term recovery was “too big to be tackled by governments alone”
He added: “Even during the current times of war, Ukraine needs to continually rebuild houses, water pipelines, hospitals and power grids.
“People want to keep on living in their country, and to do so they need electricity, water and a roof over their heads.”
What’s happening today
Germany is hosting a two-day conference to gather support for Ukraine’s recovery in a signal of solidarity witth Kyiv from today.
The two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin comes before the Group of Seven summit of Ukraine‘s leading Western allies in Italy and a global peace summit in Switzerland this coming weekend.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who last week attended events marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France, is expected at the gathering, which the German hosts say will bring together 2,000 people from politics, business and other areas.
Russia drops 500kg guided bomb on Ukrainian civilians overnight
At least five people were severely injured after Russian forces dropped a 500-kilogram guided bomb on a residential area of the city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk oblast yesterday, Ukrainian officials said.
The guided bomb hit the area around 11.20pm last night, officials said.
The bomb hit a residential area where five local residents sustained physical injuries due to shattered glass and a powerful blast wave, reported Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda. The injured civilians include a 65-year-old man and two women aged 63 and 88.
They were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries and multiple lacerations, the report added. The bombing also hollowed out 13 multi-storey buildings and shattered its windows and glass panes.
Russia does not acknowledge its missile and bombing attacks on Ukraine, especially civilian areas, although it claims it is targeting military hotspots. However, in its 27-month-old war, Russia has attacked schools, maternity wards, hospitals, shelters, villages, residential settlements, museums, churches among several other places.
90 countries to attend Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace summit that Russia is snubbing
Zelensky reaches Germany to meet Scholz
Volodymyr Zelensky said he arrived in Germany for a conference on Ukraine’s post-war recovery and would also hold talks with chancellor Olaf Sholz.
The Ukrainian war-time leader said he would prioritise measures concerning Ukraine‘s energy sector, shattered by Russian air attacks at the conference, an annual event.
His talks with Sholz would focus on continued military support, including air defences and joint manufacture of munitions, and the coordination of positions ahead of the “peace summit” to be hosted by Switzerland later in the week.
Russian bomber crashes in Caucasus, killing crew
A Russian SU-34 bomber crashed in the Caucasus mountains during a routine training flight likely due to a technical malfunction, killing the crew aboard, Russian news agencies reported today citing the defence ministry.
An unspecified number of crew members have been killed, officials said. It is not immediately known how many people were on board.
“The preliminary cause of the plane crash is a technical malfunction,” TASS state news agency cited the ministry’s representative as saying. The crash took place in the Ossetia region, the ministry said.
US does not expect EU’s rightward shift to bring big foreign policy changes, official says
The United States does not expect any major foreign policy changes from the European Union, including on Ukraine, after a European Parliament election that saw far-right parties gain seats, a US official said on Monday.
The official said Washington expects Ursula von der Leyen will be able to stay on as EU president.
Russia undermining Finnish sovereignty with airspace violations, says think-tank
The Kremlin is continuing its mission to undermine Finland’s territorial and sovereign integrity by sending military jets into its airspace, a US-based think-tank said, after Russia violated the Nato nation’s airspace yesterday.
Shortly after breaching Finnish airspace yesterday morning, the Russian defence ministry said it conducted flights using Tu-95MS missile carriers and Tu-22M3 bombers over the neutral waters of the Baltic, Barents and Norwegian seas.
Noting that the Russian ministry of defence has not responded to Finnish reports, The Institute for the Study of War said: “This reported incursion likely forwards the ongoing Kremlin effort to undermine Finnish sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
It noted that the Russian defence ministry had proposed last month that the Russian government should “reassess Russia’s maritime borders in the Gulf of Finland, which some Western officials have warned may be part of an effort to revise maritime zones in the Baltic Sea”.
“The Kremlin has also been running a number of information operations aimed at portraying Finland as an enemy to Russia and Russians, ultimately setting information conditions to justify potential future aggression against Finland,” the ISW said.
90 countries to attend Ukraine peace summit that Russia is ignoring
Nearly 90 countries and organisations, half from Europe, have confirmed attending the Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace summit over the weekend despite Russia’s refusal to participate in the conference, Switzerland’s president has said.
Viola Amherd told reporters in the Swiss capital that the summit, on Saturday and Sunday, will aim to chart a path toward possible peace nearly 28 months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine and the war grinding on.
Some, including French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz, are expected to attend the summit at the Buergenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne.
Brazil and China said they wouldn’t take part unless both sides – including Russia – were at the table, according to Swiss officials. Beijing has been one of the top supporters of Vladimir Putin since the war started.
“This is not propaganda,” said Amherd. “This is about the basis of humanitarian aid provided by Switzerland… and to initiate a dialogue.”
The Swiss president added that most participants — about half of which will be represented at the level of head of state or government — are country leaders, but “a handful” are from organisations like the United Nations.
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Putin claims Russia may supply long-range weapons to enemies of West
Vladimir Putin has claimed Russia could retaliate in kind against those permitting Ukraine to target Russia with their long-range missiles – by providing such weapons to countries within striking distance of Western nations.
In wide-ranging remarks at his annual economic forum in St Petersburg, the Russian president sought to insist that Moscow “does not care” about the upcoming US election, claimed candidate Donald Trump’s hush money conviction was “political”, and dismissed fears that Russia wants to attack Nato as “nonsense”.
But he warned that the United States and Germany’s recent authorisation for Ukraine to use their weapons to hit specific Russian targets close to Kharkiv could lead to “very serious problems”, calling Berlin’s decision a “very dangerous step”.
Source: independent.co.uk
