Russian provocations target countries most supportive of Ukraine —Ukrainian diplomat

Diplomat, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Croatia (2010-2017) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011-2017) Oleksandr Levchenko shared his opinion on Espreso TV.

“They (Russia, ed.) sensed NATO’s weakness regarding these drones, the aircraft, and so on, the weakness of the response, and so on. And, of course, they moved forward. They crush. Well, this is purely Russian tactics: if they are afraid, they crush, squeezing as much as possible in this situation. Why the Baltics? Because Denmark is the most pro-Ukrainian country. Probably, in terms of GDP, it gives us the most money. If France gave us that much money, it would be billions and billions of dollars, but France simply doesn’t, whereas Denmark does. That’s why Denmark is facing problems. Poland always says sharp things about Russia, so here, you get a portion for yourself. Germany has started acting more pro-Ukrainian. Here you go, planes flying over their military ships once and twice. Will this stop? No. It won’t stop. Moreover, we can say that all this escalation is not just for some bubbles. And the UK, you said, has a pro-Ukrainian stance. Nothing happened in Hungary or Slovakia. You notice, those who support Ukraine the most, here are your problems,” he said.

Oleksandr Levchenko noted that Russia will not stop at what it has already done; moreover, it will continue moving forward.

“Will this stop these countries? I don’t think so. On the contrary, they will support Ukraine even more consistently. Will Russia go further? We are already saying that it will — feeling its way, squeezing as much as possible. That means something will have to be done. That plane will have to be shot down. And we’ll see whether Russia has some backup plan for how to act after one or two planes are shot down. And Europeans are afraid to shoot down, because they don’t know how to act afterward. In other words, Europe realized it wasn’t ready for war. Russia sensed that Europe wasn’t ready for war and is pressing as much as possible. Europe wants to delay it as much as it can. From next year, the military budget in each country will already be 5% — 2.5 times more than now. Even for a year or two, they’ll have a sort of military “fat layer.” Right now, they don’t have it. That’s why Russia is pushing hard in these months. One scenario from certain analytical centers even suggests this could start as early as November,” the diplomat said.

• On the evening of September 22, Kyiv time, the Copenhagen airport suspended operations due to drone activity, and in Oslo, drones were spotted over a military facility.
• At the same time, Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson stated that the country is ready to use weapons against Russian aircraft in the event of a violation of its airspace.

Russian Shaheds in Polish airspace: What we know

The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces placed air defense and aviation units on high alert following Russia’s night attack on Ukraine on September 10, during which Russian drones entered Polish airspace. Reports indicate that more than 20 UAVs were involved.

In a village in Poland’s Lublin Province, debris from one drone fell on a house, though no injuries were reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the violation of Poland’s airspace by Russian drones, calling it a dangerous precedent for all of Europe.

On Wednesday, September 10, NATO activated Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty after Russian drones violated Polish territory.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico stated that it is necessary to “objectively determine” who controlled the drones. U.S. President Donald Trump reacted to the Russian drones’ intrusion into Polish territory.