FLASH
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Bombings for 12 hours, death and destruction. Zelensky calls it a "cowardly attack". Flights over Danish military bases, Warsaw closes airspace and raises fighter jets. Mission in the North strengthened…
NATO is strengthening its northern front, while Denmark is preparing for the EU summit scheduled to be held on October 1.
The Atlantic Alliance has announced a significant and rapid upgrade of its mission in the Baltic Sea, deploying "additional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, and at least one air defense frigate" in response to a wave of mysterious drone attacks on critical infrastructure in Northern Europe.
NATO will "carry out even more intensive surveillance with new tools in the Baltic Sea region."
This reflects an increasingly urgent debate within the 32-member alliance over how to respond forcefully to what officials are calling a campaign of Russian "hybrid airstrikes," which includes repeated airspace violations by both military aircraft and unidentified drones.
NATO also launched the "Eastern Guard" mission this month to strengthen the defense of its eastern flank in response to Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace.
On Tuesday, it warned it would use “all necessary military and non-military means” to defend itself after Estonia accused three Russian MiG-31 fighters of violating its airspace for 12 minutes. Moscow has denied this, saying its drones were not planning to strike targets in Poland.
Meanwhile, during the night between Saturday and Sunday, unmanned aerial vehicles were spotted near military sites in Denmark, as reported by the Ministry of Defense website, and Copenhagen has decided to ban all civilian drone flights from Monday to Friday in anticipation of the EU summit.
The city will be under lockdown for both the informal meeting of heads of state and government on October 1 and the following day for the conference of the European Political Community. German armed forces will also be deployed to ensure maximum security, Berlin announced, specifying that the decision responds to a request for assistance from the Danish government, addressed to several EU countries.
The Bundeswehr will provide direct support against the threat of suspicious aircraft, while the frigate Hamburg is already anchored in the port of Copenhagen as part of NATO's "Baltic Sentry" mission.
Between Saturday and Sunday, Russia bombed Ukraine for hours with hundreds of drones and missiles, killing at least four people, including a 12-year-old girl.
"Moscow wants to continue to fight and kill and deserves only the harshest pressure from the world," stressed President Volodymyr Zelensky, while Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the capital was under a "massive" attack and urged residents to stay in shelters.
Moscow's Defense Ministry, however, claimed that "last night the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a massive attack on enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex."
Neighboring Poland has scrambled fighter jets into its airspace, putting ground-based air defense systems on high alert in response to Putin's military attacks on Kiev.
The measures, the Polish armed forces explain, are preventive and aim to protect airspace and citizens, especially in areas adjacent to Ukraine. / Adapted from Il Giornale /
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