Russian drones have flown into Polish and Romanian airspace, escalating tensions with Europe.
A Ukrainian attack on Russia hit a major oil refinery and railways. The escalating drone warfare between Moscow and Kiev has resulted in more Russian UAVs in the airspace of NATO countries.
Ukrainian forces attacked the Kirishi oil refinery in Russia’s Leningrad Oblast. Kirishi is one of Moscow’s largest refineries and is about 500 miles from the Ukrainian border. The governor of the Leningrad region said three drones were intercepted, with one causing a fire at Kirishi that was extinguished.
Ukraine launched at least 80 drones at Russia on Sunday. Kiev also claimed to have conducted sabotage attacks inside Russia that destroyed railways that helped Moscow deliver supplies to its soldiers in Ukraine.
Moscow did not report injuries from the attack on the refinery. Kiev reported killing two Russian soldiers in the sabotage attack on the railways.
The drone war between Kiev and Moscow has continued to ratchet up. As Russia has targeted military industrial buildings near Ukraine’s borders, an increasing number of drones have entered Polish and Romanian airspace.
Last week, about two dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace. A small number of drones were shot down by NATO fighter jets. Some of the recovered UAVs were decoy models and did not carry explosives.
European leaders have called the drones an intentional provocation, while Russia said the drones were targeting military sites in Ukraine, and only flew off course due to electronic warfare.
On Saturday, a Russian drone flew over Romania before turning around and bombing Ukraine. Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu said that Romania did not down the UAV because it turned around. “The aircraft took off and spotted it (the drone), they were very close to shooting it down. The drone was flying very low and at some point turned back toward Ukraine,” he said.
The drone incursions have caused a divide between the US and Europe. Reuters reports that European leaders are unhappy that President Donald Trump has not responded more forcefully to the Russian drone incursion. A German official told the outlet, “With this US administration, we can’t rely on anything. But we have to pretend that we could.”
Reprinted from Antiwar.com
