Russia Ukraine war live: Putin to reinforce western borders after drone attacks surge

Jump to content Sign up to our newsletters Subscribe News Sports Voices Culture Lifestyle Travel Premium News World Europe Arpan Rai , Andy Gregory Wednesday 09 August 2023 12:48 Comments Close Drone footage shows moment Russian ship is attacked Russia has pledged to reinforce western borders following reinforcement from Nato, with the ramped-up security arriving after a surge in drone attacks on Moscow . Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said NATO-member Poland had already announced plans to strengthen its military , and he expected significant NATO forces and weaponry to be deployed in Finland. On Wednesday, Russia claimed it shot down two Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow, one near a major airport to the south of the city and one to the west of the capital. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said whilst one drone was shot down near Domodedovo, where one of Russia’s biggest international airports is located. Another was downed near the Minsk motorway. Kyiv has never claimed responsibility for attacks inside Russian territory, but the Russian defence ministry dubbed the incident a ‘terrorist attack.’ Meanwhile, Poland has confirmed it will send 2.000 troops to its frontier with Belarus, twice the number requested by the Border Guard, to stem illegal crossings and maintain stability. Poland has worried increasingly about the border area since hundreds of battle-hardened Wagner mercenaries arrived in Belarus last month at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko. 1691576934 Russia has pledged to reinforce western borders following reinforcement from Nato, with the ramped-up security arriving after a surge in drone attacks on Moscow. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed the plans at a meeting with the Collegium of the Defence Ministry on Wednesday. Shoigu said NATO-member Poland had already announced plans to strengthen its military, and he expected significant NATO forces and weaponry to be deployed in Finland, which has just joined the U.S.-led Western alliance. On Wednesday, Russia claimed it shot down two Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow, one near a major airport to the south of the city and one to the west of the capital. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said whilst one drone was shot down near Domodedovo, where one of Russia’s biggest international airports is located. Another was downed near the Minsk motorway. Kyiv has never claimed responsibility for attacks inside Russian territory, but the Russian defence ministry dubbed the incident a ‘terrorist attack.’ Meanwhile, Poland has confirmed it will send 2.000 troops to its frontier with Belarus, twice the number requested by the Border Guard, to stem illegal crossings and maintain stability. Poland has worried increasingly about the border area since hundreds of battle-hardened Wagner mercenaries arrived in Belarus last month at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus started military exercises near the border this week, and Lukashenko said several times that he is restraining Wagner fighters who want to attack Poland. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visits the advanced command post of the group of troops ‘Center’ in the zone of the ‘Special Military Operation’, 4 August Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 11:28 1691580355 Kyiv has accused Moscow of targeting rescue workers after an eastern Ukrainian city was hit with two missiles in quick succession – the first destroying buildings before the second hit emergency crews clearing the scene. The strikes on the downtown district of the city of Pokrovsk – in the Donetsk region – killed at least seven people, including an emergency official, and wounded more than 80 others, most of them police officers, emergency workers and soldiers who rushed to assist residents, Ukrainian officials said. The Iskander missiles used in the strikes on Monday evening have an advanced guidance system that increases their accuracy. The two strikes hit within 40 minutes of each other, said Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. The tactic is called a ‘double tap’ in military jargon. It is one that Russia has previously used during Syria’s civil war. My colleague Chris Stevenson reports: The UN humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine calls attack on eastern Pokrovsk ‘absolutely ruthless’ and says it violates ‘any principle of humanity’ Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 12:25 1691578595 A blast rocked an optics and optical electronics factory in the town of Sergiev Posad, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Moscow, on Wednesday, injuring at least 45 people, local authorities said. Emergency services said the blast appeared to have occurred in a warehouse containing pyrotechnic equipment, the state news agency TASS reported. The popular online news channel Mash said it had been rented by a pyrotechnics firm. Twenty-three people were admitted to hospital, including six in intensive care, the Sergiev Posad mayor’s office said. Unverified footage on social media showed a huge column of smoke, and high-rise buildings with windows blown out. The Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant produces optical equipment for industrial and healthcare applications as well as for the Russian security forces. However, TASS cited emergency services as saying they did not believe the blast had been caused by a Ukrainian drone attack – many of which have taken place in Moscow and the surrounding area in recent weeks and months. Smoke rises from the Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant in the city of Sergiev Posad, Moscow Region Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 11:56 1691578099 Russia will build up forces at its western borders following Finland’s accession to the U.S.-led NATO alliance, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told the governing board of the ministry on Wednesday. In opening remarks to the Collegium of the Defence Ministry, Shoigu said NATO-member Poland had already announced plans to strengthen its military, and that he expected significant NATO forces and weaponry to be deployed in Finland, whose inclusion has almost doubled the length of Russia’s land border with NATO. ‘The collective West is waging a proxy war against Russia,’ he said, according to his ministry, pointing to its ‘unprecedented support’ for Ukraine in supplying tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry to help Kyiv repel Russian forces. Shoigu called the entry of Finland into NATO and the future entry of Sweden ‘a serious destabilising factor’. The two Nordic states abandoned generations of neutrality that had held throughout the Cold War to seek NATO membership following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early last year. ‘On Finnish territory, it is likely that additional military contingents and strike weapons of NATO will be deployed, capable of hitting critical targets in the northwest of Russia at a considerable depth,’ Shoigu said. ‘Today, at the meeting of the Board, we will consider issues related to the creation of the Leningrad and Moscow military districts with the simultaneous strengthening of groupings of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on our western borders.’ He said Poland had announced its intention to build the most powerful army on the continent, and had become ‘the main instrument of the anti-Russian policy of the United States of America’. Shoigu said the number of NATO military units from outside the region stationed in eastern Europe had increased by two-and-a-half times since February last year and that they were now 30,000-strong in total. ‘These threats to Russia’s military security require a timely and adequate response. We will discuss the necessary measures to neutralise them at the meeting and make appropriate decisions,’ he said. Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 11:48 1691577928 The government is reviewing its sanctions on Russia after a dramatic intervention from Ukraine ‘s first lady Olena Zelenska condemning loopholes that allow Moscow to fund its invasion. The Foreign Office has expressed its fury over sanctions-busting efforts by Russian allies to use a third country to continue trading with Moscow despite the hefty economic measures imposed since Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his invasion. The government is weighing how it can act and hopes to move imminently, The Independent can reveal. Exclusive: Government to act imminently to close loophole allowing trade with Moscow after Olena Zelenska interview with Independent TV Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 11:45 1691576128 In a rare interview the First Lady of Ukraine , Olena Zelenska, has spoken to Independent TV about her work rebuilding Ukraine in the middle of war , the pressures on her family and concerns for the future of her country . From the presidential palace, she told The Independent ‘s Bel Trew about the need to reconstruct cities despite the fighting raging on , about building cutting-edge facilities to treat the country’s’ war-wounded and fighting stigma on trauma around the country. Watch the full interview on Independent TV, across mobile and connected TV. In a rare interview the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, has spoken to Independent TV about her work rebuilding Ukraine in the middle of war, the pressures on her family and concerns for the future of her country. From the presidential palace, she told The Independent’s Bel Trew about the need to reconstruct cities despite the fighting raging on, about building cutting-edge facilities to treat the country’s’ war-wounded and fighting stigma on trauma around the country. Watch the full interview on Independent TV, across mobile and connected TV. Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 11:15 1691575165 Russia will build up forces at its western borders, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told the Collegium of the Defence Ministry on Wednesday, according to the ministry. Shoigu said NATO-member Poland had already announced plans to strengthen its military, and he expected significant NATO forces and weaponry to be deployed in Finland, which has just joined the U.S.-led Western alliance. Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 10:59 1691574328 Russian air defenses shot down two drones aimed at Moscow overnight, officials said Wednesday, in what they described as Ukraine’s latest attempt to strike the Russian capital in an apparent campaign to unnerve Muscovites and take the war to Russia. The drones were intercepted on their approach to Moscow and there were no casualties, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The Russian Defense Ministry described it as a ‘terrorist attack.’ One of the drones came down in the Domodedovo region south of Moscow and the other fell near the Minsk highway, west of the city, according to Sobyanin. Domodedovo airport is one of Moscow’s busiest. Russian officials say air defenses have shot down two drones aimed at Moscow overnight Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 10:45 1691573321 Poland will send 2,000 troops to the Belarus border to support the Border Guard, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik told state-run news agency PAP on Wednesday. Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 10:28 1691572528 Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russia ‘s invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale – especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage. The Kremlin , in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putin ‘s spurious war to ‘de-Nazify’ Russia’s neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries. Reliable figures difficult to substantiate amid the fog of war Eleanor Noyce 9 August 2023 10:15 Ukraine Russia Kyiv Volodymyr Zelensky Vladimir Putin Moscow A fighter from Russian Wagner mercenary group conducts training for Belarusian soldiers on a range near the town of Osipovichi, Belarus via REUTERS Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in