Moscow draws condemnation after its drones detected in Latvia and Romania
\n KYIV
\nRussia on Sunday said its forces had advanced in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv reported deadly air attacks and urged the West to allow it to carry out more retaliatory strikes inside Russia.
\nRussian attack drones flying towards Ukraine also breached the airspace of NATO members Romania and Latvia, the countries said Sunday, triggering calls for a robust response from the military alliance.
\nMoscow has stepped up its aerial attacks in recent weeks, but it is also trying to fight off a major Ukrainian cross-border offensive into its western Kursk region, which has reshaped the course of the two-and-a-half-year war.
\nKyiv launched its Kursk offensive on August 6 hoping to force Russia to redeploy troops pressing forward in the east of the country. But Moscow has appeared to intensify its attacks there, chalking up its most significant territorial gains in almost two years over the month of August.
\nAnd on Sunday, its military claimed to have captured another small village on the route towards the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region.
\nRussia\u2019s defence ministry said its troops had \u201cliberated the settlement of Novohrodivka\u201d, which lies around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Pokrovsk.
\nThe town is one of Russia\u2019s larger territorial conquests of recent weeks, home to more than 14,000 inhabitants before Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said last week his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area, which includes Donetsk.
\nHe claimed that Ukraine\u2019s Kursk counter-offensive had made that easier.
\nMoscow drew fresh condemnation on Sunday after its drones were detected in Latvia and Romania, both NATO and EU members.
\nA \u201cRussian military drone… crashed in the eastern part of Latvia yesterday. There is an ongoing investigation,\u201d Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on X, formerly Twitter.
\nRomania said a Russian attack drone targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine overnight had entered its airspace.
\n\u201cNATO must respond to the fact that Russian \u2018Shaheds\u2019 feel free to fly in the airspace of European countries. They need to be shot down,\u201d Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s chief of staff, said on Telegram, referring to the Iranian-style self-detonating drones.
\nZelensky himself on Sunday also urged Kyiv\u2019s partners to give him more scope to use Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia.
\n\u201cIn just one week, Russia has used over 800 guided aerial bombs, nearly 300 Shahed drones, and more than 60 missiles of various types against our people,\u201d he said in a Facebook post.
\n\u201cTerror can only be reliably stopped in one way: by striking Russian military airfields, their bases, and the logistics of Russian terror,\u201d he said.
\nSeven people were reported killed across the country on Sunday after Russian rocket, missile and shelling attacks.
\nTwo people died in an air strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, the capital of the region from where Ukraine poured troops and tanks across the border into Russia in its shock counter-attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow draws condemnation after its drones detected in Latvia and Romania KYIV Russia on Sunday said its forces had advanced in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv reported deadly air attacks and urged the West to allow it to carry out more retaliatory strikes inside Russia. Russian attack drones flying towards Ukraine also breached the airspace of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-430229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n