Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on Western allies to “stop looking for excuses” and to slash Russia with tougher sanctions due to Moscow’s “obvious expansion of the war”.
“Everyone sees that Russian drones against Poland are also Putin's war. And this is a warning not only for Poles, but for everyone in Europe. Russian drones can cover a much greater distance. This is already a very long war of Russia – its ambitions, its capabilities, its budget, and therefore Russian oil, Russian gas, Russian uranium, Russian resources that make Putin's cash register,” Zelenskiy said during evening address.
Zelenskiy made the remarks on Saturday after a Russian drone entered Romania – the second NATO country whose airspace was breached by Moscow this week. Romania’s defence ministry reported on Saturday that it detected a Russian drone near the Ukrainian-Polish border. The country scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to monitor the situation. The drone did not fly over populated areas and disappeared from the radar shortly after being intercepted.
Earlier on Wednesday, Poland’s airspace was also breached by nineteen Russian drones, four of which were downed by Polish and allies’ fighter jets. The drone entered deep into Poland and hit a roof of a building. However, there were no casualties during the attack. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said during a conference in Kyiv on Sunday that Warsaw’s response would have been “much tougher”, had the Russian drones caused casualties. The Kremlin claimed the incursion on Poland was not deliberate and has not commented on Romania’s claims of air space violation yet.
