Zelenskyy warns Putin wants to occupy all of Ukraine

Washington's ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, on Friday told the UN Security Council that the United States would "defend every inch of NATO territory," as the Council discussed a Russian drone incursion into Poland earlier this week.

The incident has set off alarm bells among European leaders who have called the incident an intentional Russian escalation.

The 19 drones were shot down by NATO aircraftearly Wednesday. It is the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that Russian military hardware has been destroyed on the territory of a NATO member state.

"These actions, now with the addition of violating the airspace of a US ally — intentionally or otherwise — show immense disrespect for good-faith US efforts to bring an end to this conflict," Shea told the Council.

Russia has denied sending the drones into Poland and maintains it was attacking Ukraine at the time of the drone incursions.

"There were no targets marked on Polish territory," Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said, adding that it would have been "physically impossible" for the drones used in the strikes to have reached Polish territory.

"We know that it was not a mistake," Poland's Secretary of State Marcin Bosacki told the Council. He showed photos of a downed drone, pointing out Russian lettering on parts of it.

Shea's statement also lamented Russia's increased strikes on Ukraine following a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month. Trump has signaled frustration with Russia as he tries to mediate an end to the war.

The US also signed a joint statement, read by Bosacki ahead of the Security Council meeting, on Friday that expressed concern about the drone incursion, accused Moscow of violating international law, while calling on Russia to stop "its war of aggression against Ukraine."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to occupy all of Ukraine, as US mediation efforts have thus far failed.

At a press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said, "Putin's goal is to occupy all of Ukraine. And no matter what he tells anyone, it is clear that he has set the war machine in motion to such an extent that he simply cannot stop it unless he is forced to fundamentally change his personal goals."

The Ukrainian leader also called on allies to urge China to use its influence with Russia to stop its offensive in Ukraine.

"China certainly has the ability to make the Russians stop killing. But the world has seen no effort by China to apply that to Russia,"
Zelenskyy said.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said that the alliance will be launching a new operation "Eastern Sentry" to protect its eastern flank after Russian drones entered Polish airspace.

"Our assessment of the incidents on Wednesday is ongoing and whether or not Russia's actions were deliberate, Russia violated NATO airspace," Rutte said about the incident.

"Whether intentional or not, it is dangerous and unacceptable," he added.

Rutte said that Russia's attack on Polish airspace was the most significant violation of NATO airspace, though not the first. Similar violations have occurred in Estonia, Romania, Latvia, and Lithuania in the past.

Read more about the new NATO operation.

US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

"It's sort of running out and running out fast, but it does take two to tango," Trump told Fox News when asked about Russia's refusal to end the war.

He hinted that Russia might face tougher sanctions because of the war and suggested that Ukraine should compromise as well.

"It's amazing. When Putin wants to do it, (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy didn't. When Zelenskyy wanted to do it, Putin didn't. Now Zelenskyy wants to and Putin is a question mark. We're going to have to come down very, very strong," Trump added.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were "on pause," blaming Europe. 

"Our negotiators have the opportunity to communicate through channels. But for now, it is probably more accurate to talk about a pause," he said.  

"The Russian side remains ready to pursue the path of peaceful dialogue. But the fact that the Europeans are hindering this is indeed true," he added.

US President Donald Trump's efforts for a deal to end the fighting have failed to materialze.

European leaders had gone to the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of Trump's summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska, to push for security gurantees for Kyiv. 

Ukraine also wants uropean troops to be deployed to the country as a peacekeeping force. 

Meanwhile, Moscow maintained a series of hardline demands, including that Ukraine fully cedes the eastern Donbas region. 

The German Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Russian ambassador in Berlin to protest the violation of Polish airspace with by Russian drones, two days after the incident. 

The action was "dangerous" and "unacceptable," the ministry said. 

"NATO stands united to defend our alliance territory and our security," the ministry wrote on social media platform X.

Germany joins other EU countries, including France and the Netherlands, in summonening Russian envoys over the incident. 

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he shared Warsaw's assessment that "the Russian government's claim that this was a coincidence or an oversight, so to speak, is not credible."

The AFP news agency is reporting, citing an unnamed NATO official, that the alliance sees no military threat in Russia and Belarus' joint military exercivse. 

"We call on Russia and Belarus to act in a predictable and transparent manner in line with their international commitments," the official was quoted as saying. "We do not see any immediate military threat against any NATO ally."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkewich are due to give a joint news conference at the alliance's Brussels headquarters at 5 p.m. local time (15:00 GMT).

Poland shot down Russian drones after they violated its national airspace during an attack on Ukraine overnight into Wednesday.

Shortly after the incident, videos and images that purport to depict the incident have circulated online, as well as propaganda and disinformation from Russia, Polish officials say.

Russia claimed that Poland itself has been spreading "myths" about the drone incursion to "aggravate the Ukrainian crisis."

At the same time, pro-Kremlin media outlets and military bloggers are actively spreading disinformation about the drones, falsely asserting that there is no evidence that Russian drones were shot down.

DW Fact Check looks at three examples of the numerous videos and claims about the drones being shared on social media. 

The photo above, for example, is from a video that has been widely shared on TikTok, with the description of one of the video reads "5 Minutes ago! Polish NATO Jets destroy record number of Shahed drones." 

But that is fake. The video scenes do not show the recent drones that entered Polish airspace, but are from the video game Àrma 3. 

Read DW's full fact-check article here.

German new agency dpa is reporting that Germany is pushing in Brussels for stricter rules on Schengen visa issuance to Russian citizens.

According to a paper cited by dpa, Berlin is calling for the full implementation of 2022 European Commission guidelines that sought to limit issuing visas to Russian citizens for tourism or shopping to EU countries.

In 2024, EU consulates in Russia reportedly issued around 542,000 short-term Schengen visas, almost 20% higher than 2023. 

The increase is largely attributed to southern EU states issuing large numbers of visas to Russian nationals, with Italy, France, Spain and Greece ammounting for most of the figure. 

EU countries have agreed to prolong for another six months their sanctions on over 2,500 Russian individuals and entities, according to diplomats, in the latest move to pressure Moscow and back Ukraine.

The decision includes sanctions the EU imposed on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ambassadors from the EU's 27-member states had until a Monday deadline to sign off on the extension. 

Hungary and Slovakia had initially demanded to take several people off the blacklist but reportedly dropped the condition and agreed to prolong the sanctions.

A no-man's-land only about 15 meters (16 yards) wide forms the border between Lithuania and Belarus, a close ally of Russia.

Two metal fences line the 600-kilometer-long strip of land. The one on the Lithuanian side is topped with barbed wire. Above it, surveillance cameras rotate regularly from left to right, making a humming sound as they zoom in and out.

Fears that there could be breaches at the border have risen in Lithuania since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

As a result, Lithuania's border guards have received extra training in recent weeks; they will carry out additional patrols during the joint military exercises, explained General Rustamas Liubajevas from Lithuania's border control service.

Read DW's full report on Lithuanian and Latvian concerns over Russian threats.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the Russian drone incursions into Poland's airspace earlier this week were not a mistake, after US President Donald Trump said it might have been one. 

"We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn't. And we know it," Tusk wrote on X. 

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also had something to say about Trump's remark:  "On the night that 19 Russian drones crossed into Poland, 400 (drones) plus 40 missiles crossed into Ukraine. These were not mistakes," he said in a video posted on X. 

British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper has arrived in the Ukrainian capital, where she is due to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Her visit came as the British government announced new sanctions which it said were in response to recent Russian aggression. 

The sanctions are targeting companies and individuals supplying electronics, chemicals and explosives used to make Russian weapons.

The UK is also targeting with the sanctions some 70 ships involved in the so-called Russian "shadow fleet" operation, which is responsible for illicitly carrying cargo since the start of the war in Ukraine.

"International action to increase economic pressure on Russia and to cut off critical cash flows which he desperately needs to pay for this illegal war is vital," Cooper said.

"These sanctions form the next stage in the UK’s leading efforts to ramp up economic pressure alongside our security support."

Britain's Prince Harry has arrived in Kyiv for a surprise visit in support of wounded service members.

The prince is accompanied by a team from his Invictus Games Foundation, a charity that works to rehabilitate wounded soldiers. 

He has already been in Ukraine once this year, visiting a center for wounded military personnel in Lviv, in the country's west. 

"We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process," Harry told The Guardian on an overnight train to Kyiv.

He founded the Invictus Games Foundation after serving for 10 years in the British Army.

Ukraine is hoping to host the next Invictus Games, a Paralympic-like competition for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans.