Polish and Nato aircraft were scrambled on Sunday morning as Russia launched a new wave of aerial attacks against Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air force said the entire country was under air raid alerts and the mayor of Lviv, a western city just 70km from the border with Poland, warned of incoming missiles.
On Saturday, a Russian drone strike against a railway station hit a passenger train, killing one and wounding 30, as Moscow stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s rail and power networks.
Meanwhile, German media reported that drones had been spotted at airports and military installations across Germany over the past two days, suggesting sightings this week at Munich Airport were the tip of the iceberg.
Dozens of flights were diverted or cancelled at Munich Airport on Friday after both runways were closed following the second drone sighting in two days.
There is mounting concern that Russia could be behind a growing number of recent drone incursions in the airspace of Ukraine’s European allies.
Lithuania’s Vilnius airport reopens after balloons cause suspension, diversions
Lithuania reopened air traffic at Vilnius airport, its largest and busiest air hub, on Sunday after hours of suspensions and diversions triggered by reports of balloons in its airspace affected thousands of travellers, the airport’s operator said.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen and Munich.
Air traffic at Vilnius was restored at 4.50am on Sunday after a decision was made late on Saturday to close the airspace “due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport,” the operator said in a statement on its Facebook page.
The temporary restrictions affected both arriving and departing flights, with some flights being cancelled, the operator said. In total, around 30 flights and nearly 6,000 passengers were impacted, it added.
China accused of giving Russia satellite intelligence to aid missile strikes in Ukraine
China is supplying intelligence to Russia to help it carry out missile attacks inside Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official has claimed.
Oleh Alexandrov, an official with Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Agency, told the state-run news outlet Ukrinform that Beijing had been sharing satellite data with Moscow to support its military operations.
“There is evidence of a high level of cooperation between Russia and China in conducting satellite reconnaissance of the territory of Ukraine in order to identify and further explore strategic objects for targeting,” Alexandrov said.
He added that some of the sites targeted “may belong to foreign investors”, suggesting that the intelligence exchange could put infrastructure backed by international funding at risk.
China has maintained what it calls a neutral stance on the war, refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion and deepening economic and political ties with Moscow.
Russian air defence units destroy 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, RIA reports
Russian air defence units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, RIA news agency reported on Sunday, citing data from Russia’s defence ministry.
At least 1 dead and dozens injured as Russian drones strike a Ukrainian railway station
Russian drones struck a Ukrainian railway station on Saturday, killing one and wounding dozens, as Moscow stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s rail and power grids before the fourth winter since its all-out invasion.
At least 30 people were wounded in the “savage” attack, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said following the attack on Shostka, a city in the Sumy region northeast of Kyiv that lies about 70km from the Russian border. Hours later, local prosecutors said that a 71-year-old man was found dead in one of the wrecked carriages.
Russia struck two passenger trains in quick succession, first targeting a local commuter service and then one bound for Kyiv, said Oleksiy Kuleba, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister. He said that the second drone hit while an evacuation was underway.
The head of Ukraine’s national rail operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, Oleksandr Pertsovsky, called the strike “a vile attack aimed at stopping communication with our front-line communities.”
“This is one of the most brutal Russian tactics – the so-called ‘double tap,’ when the second strike hits rescuers and people who are evacuating,” said Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, according to a Telegram post by the foreign ministry.
Both Zelensky and local governor Oleh Hryhorov posted what they said were photos from the scene showing a passenger carriage on fire. The drone strikes also knocked out the power supply in Shostka, home to more than 70,000 people before the war, and surrounding areas, according to Hryhorov.
Russia rains drones and missiles on western Ukraine
At 3am GMT, Ukraine’s Air Force said all of the country was under the threat of fresh Russian missile attacks, following hours of air raid alerts and warnings of drone and missile attacks.
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv – a western Ukrainian city about 70km from the border with Poland, said missiles were approaching the city after air defence systems were already engaged heavily in repelling a Russian drone attack.
Reuters witnesses said the pounding of what sounded like air defence systems in operation came from all directions.
There were no immediate reports of potential damage and there was no comment from Russia.
Both sides have been launching air attacks throughout the war aimed at destroying infrastructure deemed crucial to the overall war efforts, including energy and transport facilities
German minister to equip police with drone defence unit
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, hosting a migration-focussed summit of European interior ministers in Munich on Saturday, told reporters he would equip police with a drone defence unit amid suspicious drone sightings that led to the closure of Munich airport.
“We are in an arms race,” he said.
“We want to rise to that challenge.” European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions.
Dobrindt has promised legislation making it easier for the police to ask the military to shoot drones down.
Multiple drone sightings reported in Germany in past three days, Bild says
Drones have been spotted at airports and military installations across Germany over the past two days, Bild newspaper quoted a confidential police report as saying, suggesting sightings this week at Munich Airport were the tip of the iceberg.
Dozens of flights were diverted or cancelled at Munich Airport on Friday after both runways were closed following the second drone sighting in two days. Operations resumed, with delays, on Saturday morning.
There is mounting concern that Russia could be behind a growing number of recent drone incursions in the airspace of Ukraine’s European allies. Russia, which is fighting a war in Ukraine, has denied any involvement.
Quoting the confidential police report which it said it had seen, Bild said on its website the drones spotted at Munich Airport were “used militarily”, without giving further details or saying where they had come from.
Other sightings in the past three days, it said, included a drone seen on Friday morning flying about 700m from Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s largest hub, and a small aircraft reported flying over an ammunition depot in northern Germany on Friday afternoon.
Three drones were also seen the day before, seemingly flying in formation, above a base of the Federal Police’s airborne unit near the northern town of Gifhorn, it said.
Lithuania’s Vilnius Airport suspends traffic over possible balloons in airspace
Lithuania suspended air traffic at Vilnius Airport due to balloons possibly flying in its airspace, and flights have been diverted to neighbouring countries, the airport’s operator said late on Saturday.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen and Munich.
“The decision was made due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport,” the operator said in a statement on its Facebook page.
“As a result of this incident, flights have been affected.”
Georgian police clash, detain protesters as ruling party says it won local elections
Georgian riot police used pepper spray and water cannons to drive demonstrators away from the presidential palace and detained five activists on Saturday, as the opposition staged a large demonstration on a day of local elections.
The governing Georgian Dream party said it had clinched victory in every municipality across the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people in an election boycotted by the two largest opposition blocs.
Shortly before polls closed, a group of demonstrators attempted to force entry to the presidential palace in the capital Tbilisi, a Reuters witness said, after opposition figures called for a “peaceful revolution” against GD, which they accuse of being pro-Russian and authoritarian.
