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It comes as the UK sent fighter jets to Poland in a warning to Putin to stay out of Nato territory after repeated incursions
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Donald Trump has said the US would come to the defence of Poland and the Baltic states if Russia were to attack in future.
Asked by reporters whether Washington would come to the aid of the Nato members if Russia were to continue escalating, he replied: “Yeah I would.”
His comments follow a number of incursions from Moscow in Nato territory. In the past fortnight, Russian drones and fighter jets have entered Estonian, Polish and Romanian air space – drawing international condemnation.
Under Nato’s Article 5 mutual defence clause, the US would be obliged to assist Poland, Estonia and Romania in the event of a Russian attack as military action against one member is considered an attack against all members.
Last week, Trump said the drone and fighter jet incursions could spell “big trouble” in an indication that he is becoming increasingly frustrated with Russia’s actions. However, he has not outlined plans to respond.
Czech president Petr Pavel has said Nato forces must shoot down Russian jets if necessary, demanding a more forceful response to Moscow’s repeated violations of the alliance’s airspace.
Russia has accused Ukraine of a “premeditated terrorist attack” after a Ukrainian drone hit a resort area of the Crimea peninsula yesterday.
The Russian defence ministry said: “At about 19.30 Moscow time (1630 GMT) in the resort area of Crimea where there are no military targets whatsoever, the Ukrainian armed forces launched a terrorist strike using strike drones equipped with high-explosive payloads.”
The attack on Faros town also injured 16 others, said Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea.
According to Krymsky Veter, an independent website devoted to Crimean affairs, senior Russian officials were likely staying in the region’s guest houses.
The Russian defence ministry described the incident as a “premeditated terrorist attack on a civilian target”.
The incident is “yet another act of terrorism by the Kyiv regime, said Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
“And Nato and the European Union, when seeking the aggressor on the European continent, need to look into the mirror to see this,” she told the TASS news agency.
“They are the ones driving destabilisation and the spread of terrorism in Europe by virtue of their sponsorship of the Kyiv regime and as supplier of arms to it,” the Russian spokesperson said.
Nato’s North Atlantic Council will meet on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s violation of Estonian airspace, two officials familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, specifying the date that so far has only been described as early next week.
Tallinn said three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace without permission on Friday and stayed for a total of 12 minutes before they were forced to withdraw.
Estonia requested consultations under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty after the incident that it described as an “unprecedentedly brazen” incursion.
Article 4 states that Nato members will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened.
Russia’s Defence Ministry denied its jets violated Estonian airspace, saying they flew over neutral waters.
With tensions already high because of the war in Ukraine, the incursion came just over a week after more than 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on the night of September 9-10.
That prompted Nato jets to down some of them and Western officials to say Russia was testing the alliance’s readiness and resolve.
Russian military aircraft violated Estonian airspace on Friday, ignoring signals from Italian jets on NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission, a senior Estonian military official confirmed.
The 12-minute incursion represents the latest test of the alliance’s response to Russian airborne threats, following around 20 Russian drones entering Polish airspace on 10 September.
Russia’s Defence Ministry denied the breach, but Tallinn dismissed this, citing radar and visual confirmation. Officials suggested the incident could be a tactic to divert Western resources from Ukraine.
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Two civilians were killed and four injured in Russia’s Belgorod region in Ukrainian attacks, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram on Sunday.
We earlier reported Gladkov’s statement that one woman died when a shell hit a private house in the settlement of Shebekino.
In an update, another man was killed in a drone attack on Rakitnoe, he said.
Belgorod region has come under regular attack from Kyiv’s forces since Russia ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin was quoted as saying on Sunday that Britain was one of the leaders of the camp which wants to continue the war in Ukraine, Russian state news agency RIA reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said that attempts by Western powers to increase the pressure on Russia would not work and would not help attempts to end the war.
Donald Trump has said the US would come to the defence of Poland and the Baltic states if Russia continued to escalate its attacks.
Speaking to reporters ahead of Charlie Kirk’s funeral, the US president was asked by reporters: “Will you help defend Poland and the Baltic states from Russia if Russia keeps escalating?”
“Yeah, I would,” Trump responded.
It follows increased incursions from Moscow in Nato territory, after Russian drones and fighter jets have entered Estonian, Polish and Romanian air space in recent weeks.
The UK has sent fighter jets to Poland in a clear warning shot to Vladimir Putin that Western nations will not tolerate Russia’s repeated incursions into Nato territory.
The RAF Typhoons took part in a Nato operation to bolster European security after Russia provoked global outrage when its jets flew into Estonian airspace on Friday.
Defence secretary John Healey said the use of British fighter planes sent “a clear signal: Nato airspace will be defended”.
Read our full story here.
Vietnam was crowned the winner of the Russian-hosted Intervision song contest in the early hours of Sunday morning, a competition backed by president Vladimir Putin and conceived as a geopolitical and socially conservative rival to Eurovision.
Putin in February ordered the revival of Intervision, a Soviet-era regional musical contest based on “traditional family values” after Moscow was excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022 following Putin’s decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
Kyiv has called the event “an instrument of hostile propaganda”.
Shown live on Russian TV and broadcast across parts of Asia, Africa, South America and Europe, Intervision was held at an arena outside Moscow with singers hailing from more than 20 countries accounting for 4 billion people, half the world’s population, including China, India and Brazil.
Vietnam’s Duc Phuc, whose song was based on a folktale about a king famous for repelling an enemy army, was crowned the strongest act by a jury made up of participating countries.
Donald Trump has warned that a third Russian incursion into Nato airspace, in which three fighter jet spent 12 minutes in Estonian airspace, could spell “big trouble” for Moscow.
It is the latest in a series of provocations by the Russian military, which has repeatedly sent drones into Poland and Romania as Moscow argues that Nato is already “fighting against Russia”.
“Nato is providing direct and indirect support to the Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “It can be said with absolute certainty that Nato is fighting against Russia.”
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