Ukraine-Russia war live: Poland scrambles warplanes after all of Ukraine under Russian missiles threat

Hungary is on the team of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna has said amid talks on Ukraine.

“To be divided, you would need two major parties. We have Hungary, a very weak country, that’s on Putin’s team. Not on our European team,” he told German outlet Rheinische Post yesterday.

Stripping Hungary of its voting power in the EU “is getting closer and closer,” Mr Tsahkna said.

He added: “Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union provides for the possibility of withdrawing a member state’s voting rights if membership endangers the security of Europe and that of the other members…. (T)hat’s exactly what (Hungarian prime minister Viktor) Orban is doing,” Mr Tsahkna said.

Mr Orban, widely seen as having the warmest relations with Mr Putin among EU leaders, has routinely blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to assist Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has said it is best to wait to deploy peacekeepers to Ukraine until after the conclusion of a peace agreement but that countries need to keep developing ideas now to implement after peace is achieved.

Talking to Ukrainian news outlet, the Nato chief also said that the “first level” of security guarantees for Ukraine should be the Ukrainian military, which will ne the “first line of defense in deterrence.”

Mr Rutte added that Ukraine’s European partners, including France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, are also looking for ways to provide security guarantees to Ukraine following the conclusion of a peace agreement.

Sir Alex Younger said people in the UK must realise that the threat from Russia – and its closeness to the US – is real, adding: “Putin and Trump together have done their best to persuade us that the rules have changed.”

Reflecting on whether Britain has the mettle for a full-scale war, he told Independent TV: “I worry – we have disarmed militarily, self-evidently. We’ve largely dismantled our military and industrial base, which is a big problem.

“We have, for many years, been completely free of any form of existential threat.

Russian air defence units intercepted and destroyed 11 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said this morning.

Drones were destroyed over the Kursk and Belgorod border regions and over the southern Russian Rostov region, the ministry said in a post on Telegram.

Yuri Slyusar, acting governor of the Rostov region, said earlier in a Telegram post that there were no injuries reported in the attack, but there were reports of drone debris falling on administrative buildings in one of the region’s districts.

At least three people were injured and several fires broke out in Kyiv early today following a Russian missile attack, the mayor and military administration of the Ukrainian capital said.

All of Ukraine was under air alerts as of 2am GMT after the country’s air force warned of an attack including on regions bordering Poland, forcing the Nato-member to scramble aircraft to ensure air safety.

Fires were recorded in at least three districts of Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post. Medics hospitalised two civilians in the Darnytskyi district on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River that splits the city, he added.

“Do not leave shelters!” Mr Klitschko said.

The scale of the attack was not immediately clear. There were also no reports of strikes or damage in western Ukrainian regions that border Poland.

Hundreds of people protested in European cities yesterday against Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, following a bruising week for financial markets after the US president unveiled sweeping global tariffs.

In the British capital, a few hundred people gathered in Trafalgar Square, holding signs saying “Proud American Ashamed” and “WTAF America?”.

The crowd chanted “Hands off Canada”, “Hands off Greenland” and “Hands off Ukraine” while listening to speeches criticising Mr Trump.

The refugees have been increasingly concerned about their legal status in the country, as president Donald Trump said last month that they could revoke their residency status.

Polish and allied aircraft were activated early this morning to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched air strikes targeting western Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said.

“The steps taken are aimed at ensuring security in the regions bordering the areas at risk,” the Command said on X.

All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts as of 2am GMT today after the Ukrainian Air Force warned of Russian missile attacks.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy met the leaders of the British and French armed forces in Kyiv yesterday to discuss the potential deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force to Ukraine, despite the reluctance of US president Donald Trump to provide security guarantees.

The UK ministry of defence said that officials addressed the structure, size and composition of any future “reassurance force,” while the chief of the defense staff, Admiral Antony Radakin, emphasised that the US would look to “build on the formidable capabilities of the Ukrainian army and put them in the strongest possible position to deter Russian aggression.”

The weekend discussions are planned to set the ground for a further meeting between defense ministers in Brussels and the Ukraine Defence Contact Group on Friday.