HELSINKI — Europe’s easternmost countries have a blunt message for Brussels: Russia is testing their borders, and the EU needs to start paying for the response. Leaders from eight EU states bordering Russia will use a summit in Helsinki on Tuesday to press for dedicated defense funding in the bloc’s next long-term budget, arguing that frontline security can no longer be treated as a national expense alone, according to three European government officials. “Strengthening Europe’s eastern flank must become a shared responsibility for Europe,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said Monday. The first-of-its-kind summit, spearheaded by Finnish Premier Petteri Orpo, underscores a growing anxiety among the EU’s so-called Eastern flank countries about Russia’s increasingly brazen efforts to test their defenses and stir panic among their populations. In recent months Russia has flown fighter jets into Estonian airspace and sent dozens of drones deep into Polish and Romanian territory. Its ally Belarus has repeatedly brought Lithuanian air traffic to a standstill by allowing giant balloons to cross its borders. And last week, Moscow’s top envoy Sergey Lavrov issued a veiled threat to Finland to exit NATO.  “Russia is a threat to Europe … far into the future,” Orpo told Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday. “There is always a competition for resources in the EU, but [defense funding] is not something that is taken away from anyone.” Tuesday’s confab, attended by Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, comes during a critical week for Europe. On Monday several EU leaders met with U.S. officials as they strain to hammer out a peace deal in Ukraine, just three days before all 27 EU countries reconvene for a crucial summit that will determine whether they unlock €210 billion in frozen Russian cash for Kyiv. OPEN THE VAULTS At the heart of Tuesday’s discussion will be unblocking EU money.  The frontline countries want the EU to “propose new financial possibilities for border countries and solidarity-based financial tools,” said one of the government officials. As part of its 2028-2034 budget proposal, the European Commission plans to raise its defense spending fivefold to €131 billion. Frontline countries would like some of that cash to be earmarked for the region, two of the government officials said, a message they are likely to reiterate during Thursday’s European Council summit in Brussels. “Strengthening Europe’s eastern flank must become a shared responsibility for Europe,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said. | Hendrik Schmidt/Getty Images In the meantime, the EU should consider new financial instruments similar to the bloc’s €150 billion loans-for-weapons program, called the Security Action For Europe, the same two officials said. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told POLITICO last week she had received calls to set up a “second SAFE” after the first iteration was oversubscribed. The frontline countries also want to throw their political weight behind two upcoming EU projects to buttress the bloc’s anti-drone and broader defenses, the two officials said. EU leaders refused to formally endorse the Eastern Flank Watch and European Drone Defense Initiative at a summit in October amid opposition by countries like Hungary, France and Germany, who saw them as overreach by Brussels on defense, two EU diplomats said at the time. A request to reserve part of the EU budget for a specific region may also face opposition from other countries. To get around this, Eastern flank countries should link defense “infrastructure improvements to overall [EU] economic development,” said Jamie Shea, a senior defense fellow at the Friends of Europe think tank and a former NATO spokesperson. Frontline capitals should also look at “opening up [those infrastructure projects] for competitive bidding” to firms outside the region, he added. DIFFERENT REGION, DIFFERENT VIEW Cash won’t be the only divisive issue in the shadows of Tuesday’s gathering. In recent weeks Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly rebuked Europe, with the U.S. president branding the continent’s leaders “weak” in an interview with POLITICO. Countries like Germany and Denmark have responded to growing U.S. admonishments by directly rebutting recent criticisms and formally branding Washington a “security risk”.  But that approach has rankled frontline countries, conscious of jeopardizing Washington’s commitment to NATO’s collective defense pledge, which they see as a last line of protection against Moscow. This view also reflects a growing worry inside NATO that a peace deal in Ukraine will give Moscow more bandwidth to rearm and redirect its efforts toward frontline countries. “If the war stops in Ukraine … [Russia’s] desire is to keep its soldiers busy,” said one senior NATO diplomat, arguing those troops are likely to be “relocated in our direction.” “Europe should take over [its own] defenses,” the diplomat added. But until the continent becomes militarily independent, “we shouldn’t talk like this” about the U.S., they argued. “It’s really dangerous [and] it’s stupid.” Jacopo Barigazzi contributed to this report from Brussels.

Lithuania on Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency over a surge in contraband-carrying balloons flying over the border from Belarus. “It’s clear that this emergency is being declared not only because of disruptions to civil aviation, but also due to national security concerns and the need for closer coordination among institutions,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovič said during a government meeting Tuesday. Kondratovič added that the government had asked the parliament to grant the military additional powers to work with the law enforcement authorities during the state of the emergency. “By introducing a state of emergency today, we are legitimizing the participation of the military … and indeed, every evening, a number of crews go out together with the police, conduct patrols, monitor the territory, and detect cargo,” he said. Lithuania has accused its neighbor Belarus of repeatedly smuggling contraband cigarettes into the country using balloons, prompting air traffic disruptions and a border closure with Belarus. Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has called Vilnius’ response “petty.” According to Lithuanian Interior Ministry data, at least 600 balloons and 200 drones entered Lithuania’s airspace this year, disrupting more than 300 flights, affecting 47,000 passengers and leading to around 60 hours of airport closures. Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said the state emergency will help coordination between joint response teams to better intercept the balloons, which both Lithuania and the EU consider to be hybrid attacks. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys told POLITICO in an interview in October that the EU must prepare new sanctions against Belarus to deprive it of the ability to wage hybrid war.

PARIS — The French navy opened fire at drones that were detected over a highly-sensitive military site harboring French nuclear submarines, according to newswire Agence France-Presse. Five drones were detected Thursday night over the submarine base of Île Longue, in Brittany, western France, a strategic military site home to ballistic missile submarines, the AFP reported, citing the the French gendarmerie, which is part of the military. The submarines harbored at the base carry nuclear weapons and are a key part of France’s nuclear deterrent. French navy troops in charge of protecting the base opened fire, the report said. It was unclear whether the drones were shot down. Drones had already been spotted in the area last month, albeit not directly above the base, per reports in French media. The site had been buzzed by drones long before the invasion of Ukraine. The incident follows a string of recent drone incursions in NATO airspace, with unmanned aircrafts seen buzzing around sensitive military sites and civil infrastructures in recent months across Europe, including in Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Norway. In Poland, fighter jets were scrambled in September to shoot down drones of Russian origin, an incident widely seen as an escalation of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hybrid war on Europe. French authorities haven’t yet commented on the suspected origin of the drone incident Thursday at the well-known military site.

Pope Leo XIV urged the U.S. not to move forward with a military incursion in Venezuela on Tuesday, instead recommending the Trump administration “seek dialogue” to avoid escalation. “There is this danger, this possibility, that there could be an action, an operation, including an invasion of Venezuelan territory,” the pope told reporters in Spanish while returning from a trip to Beirut. “I again believe it is better to seek dialogue within this pressure, including economic pressure, but looking for another way to bring about change, if that is what the United States decides to do.” His comments come as President Donald Trump has escalated his rhetoric against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, ordering the airspace above the South American country closed on Saturday. His administration is also facing scrutiny over a series of airstrikes that have killed dozens of people on vessels allegedly carrying narcotics, some of which reportedly originated from Venezuela. Leo, who spent several years as a bishop in Peru before being elected the first American pope in May, has been guarded in his criticisms of the Trump administration. But he has found himself at odds with the White House on at least one other occasion, suggesting in September that those who support the “inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States” may not be “pro life.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Leo’s remarks. Asked Sunday evening whether the airspace closure signaled an imminent strike against Venezuela, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One to not “read anything into it.” Trump confirmed that he spoke with Maduro last week but declined to comment on the details of the conversation. Trump also met with senior military and national security officials Monday evening in the Oval Office to discuss options regarding operations in Venezuela.

BRUSSELS — Russia’s drones and agents are unleashing attacks across NATO countries and Europe is now doing what would have seemed outlandish just a few years ago: planning how to hit back. Ideas range from joint offensive cyber operations against Russia, and faster and more coordinated attribution of hybrid attacks by quickly pointing the finger at Moscow, to surprise NATO-led military exercises, according to two senior European government officials and three EU diplomats. “The Russians are constantly testing the limits — what is the response, how far can we go?” Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže noted in an interview. A more “proactive response is needed,” she told POLITICO. “And it’s not talking that sends a signal — it’s doing.” Russian drones have buzzed Poland and Romania in recent weeks and months, while mysterious drones have caused havoc at airports and military bases across the continent. Other incidents include GPS jamming, incursions by fighter aircraft and naval vessels, and an explosion on a key Polish rail link ferrying military aid to Ukraine. “Overall, Europe and the alliance must ask themselves how long we are willing to tolerate this type of hybrid warfare … [and] whether we should consider becoming more active ourselves in this area,” German State Secretary for Defense Florian Hahn told Welt TV last week. Hybrid attacks are nothing new. Russia has in recent years sent assassins to murder political enemies in the U.K., been accused of blowing up arms storage facilities in Central Europe, attempted to destabilize the EU by financing far-right political parties, engaged in social media warfare, and tried to upend elections in countries like Romania and Moldova. But the sheer scale and frequency of the current attacks are unprecedented. Globsec, a Prague-based think tank, calculated there were more than 110 acts of sabotage and attempted attacks carried out in Europe between January and July, mainly in Poland and France, by people with links to Moscow. “Today’s world offers a much more open — indeed, one might say creative — space for foreign policy,” Russian leader Vladimir Putin said during October’s Valdai conference, adding: “We are closely monitoring the growing militarization of Europe. Is it just rhetoric, or is it time for us to respond?” Russia may see the EU and NATO as rivals or even enemies — former Russian President and current deputy Kremlin Security Council head Dmitry Medvedev last month said: “The U.S. is our adversary.” However, Europe does not want war with a nuclear-armed Russia and so has to figure out how to respond in a way that deters Moscow but does not cross any Kremlin red lines that could lead to open warfare. That doesn’t mean cowering, according to Swedish Chief of Defense Gen. Michael Claesson. “We cannot allow ourselves to be fearful and have a lot of angst for escalation,” he said in an interview. “We need to be firm.” So far, the response has been to beef up defenses. After Russian war drones were shot down over Poland, NATO said it would boost the alliance’s drone and air defenses on its eastern flank — a call mirrored by the EU. Even that is enraging Moscow. Europeans “should be afraid and tremble like dumb animals in a herd being driven to the slaughter,” said Medvedev. “They should soil themselves with fear, sensing their near and agonizing end.” SWITCHING GEARS Frequent Russian provocations are changing the tone in European capitals. After deploying 10,000 troops to protect Poland’s critical infrastructure following the sabotage of a rail line linking Warsaw and Kyiv, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday accused Moscow of engaging in “state terrorism.” After the incident, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said such threats posed an “extreme danger” to the bloc, arguing it must “have a strong response” to the attacks. Last week, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto slammed the continent’s “inertia” in the face of growing hybrid attacks and unveiled a 125-page plan to retaliate. In it he suggested establishing a European Center for Countering Hybrid Warfare, a 1,500-strong cyber force, as well as military personnel specialized in artificial intelligence. “Everybody needs to revise their security procedures,” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski added on Thursday. “Russia is clearly escalating its hybrid war against EU citizens.” WALK THE TALK Despite the increasingly fierce rhetoric, what a more muscular response means is still an open question. Part of that is down to the difference between Moscow and Brussels — the latter is more constrained by acting within the rules, according to Kevin Limonier, a professor and deputy director at the Paris-based GEODE think tank. “This raises an ethical and philosophical question: Can states governed by the rule of law afford to use the same tools … and the same strategies as the Russians?” he asked. So far, countries like Germany and Romania are strengthening rules that would allow authorities to shoot down drones flying over airports and militarily sensitive objects. National security services, meanwhile, can operate in a legal gray zone. Allies from Denmark to the Czech Republic already allow offensive cyber operations. The U.K. reportedly hacked into ISIS’s networks to obtain information on an early-stage drone program by the terrorist group in 2017. Allies must “be more proactive on the cyber offensive,” said Braže, and focus on “increasing situational awareness — getting security and intelligence services together and coordinated.” In practice, countries could use cyber methods to target systems critical to Russia’s war effort, like the Alabuga economic zone in Tatarstan in east-central Russia, where Moscow is producing Shahed drones, as well as energy facilities or trains carrying weapons, said Filip Bryjka, a political scientist and hybrid threat expert at the Polish Academy of Sciences. “We could attack the system and disrupt their functioning,” he said. Europe also has to figure out how to respond to Russia’s large-scale misinformation campaigns with its own efforts inside the country. “Russian public opinion … is somewhat inaccessible,” said one senior military official. “We need to work with allies who have a fairly detailed understanding of Russian thinking — this means that cooperation must also be established in the field of information warfare.” Still, any new measures “need to have plausible deniability,” said one EU diplomat. SHOW OF FORCE NATO, for its part, is a defensive organization and so is leery of offensive operations. “Asymmetric responses are an important part of the conversation,” said one NATO diplomat, but “we aren’t going to stoop to the same tactics as Russia.” Instead, the alliance should prioritize shows of force that illustrate strength and unity, said Oana Lungescu, a former NATO spokesperson and fellow with London’s Royal United Services Institute think tank. In practice, that means rapidly announcing whether Moscow is behind a hybrid attack and running ‘no-notice’ military exercises on the Russian border with Lithuania or Estonia. Meanwhile, the NATO-backed Centre of Excellence on Hybrid Threats in Helsinki, which brings together allied officials, is also “providing expertise and training” and drafting “policies to counter those threats,” said Maarten ten Wolde, a senior analyst at the organization.  “Undoubtedly, more should be done on hybrid,” said one senior NATO diplomat, including increasing collective attribution after attacks and making sure to “show through various means that we pay attention and can shift assets around in a flexible way.” Jacopo Barigazzi, Nicholas Vinocur, Nette Nöstlinger, Antoaneta Roussi and Seb Starvecic contributed reporting.

LONDON — Europe’s leaders are trying to nail down their plans to back up Ukraine with multinational military force if the country manages to land a peace deal with Russia. With a flurry of diplomacy towards an agreement sharpening minds, Ukraine’s allies assembled for a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing” Tuesday — and appeared to have won at least some United States buy-in. The meeting was designed to show solidarity with Kyiv as it advances delicate peace talks with the U.S. — and make good on promises by the 33-strong “Coalition of the Willing” to match words with deeds. On Tuesday night, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a new joint task-force — led by France and the U.K. with the participation of the United States and Turkey. It’s intended to hammer out the precise detail of the military support Europe will offer under a peace agreement. “In the coming days, we will be able to finalize very precisely the contributions of each country and be able to present finalized security guarantees,” Macron promised. A “multinational force” will play “a vital part” in guaranteeing the country’s security, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told those on the call — who notably included U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. An Elysée official argued that the fresh task force would give a “new coherence” to transatlantic talks on security guarantees, while a U.K. official said Rubio’s participation in the call was a positive sign of U.S. buy-in, long one of the most contentious elements of any plan. A second British official said British preparations by military planners were “very well advanced.”  Still, analysts urged a good dose of caution. Ed Arnold from the Royal United Services think tank in London warned that, if U.S. security guarantees are not firmly pinned down, the coalition is “in a really dangerous position, in that you’re deploying a force with a backstop that deep down you know is not credible.” ‘FALLBACK POSITIONS’ The coalition, a loose alliance of nations whose members include France, Germany, Britain, Belgium, Canada and Turkey among others, sprung up earlier this year amid deep European concern about America’s ongoing support for Ukraine. Its members have promised varying degrees of support — including, in the case of France and the U.K., a commitment to deploy national troops on the ground to police the deal and deter further Russian aggression. The coalition has already floated a “reassurance force” providing air and naval support to Ukraine, as well as a focus on regenerating the country’s armed forces. Starmer’s spokesman told reporters Tuesday that the U.K. was “still willing to put boots on the ground” to secure peace. Macron, while stressing that the force would be “far from the frontline,” floated a presence “in fallback positions in Kyiv or Odessa.” “We’ll have a air reassurance force, which will not be based in Ukraine, but possibly in neighboring countries… leading operations linked with the Ukrainian air force to secure its airspace,” he told French radio. With one eye on a wary domestic audience, Macron added: “We shouldn’t sow panic among the French, because there are a lot of people… who want to scare us, and who are saying that we’re going to immediately send troops, that’s false.” Germany has been somewhat more circumspect about its involvement. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul this week pointed to an existing German brigade in Lithuania, saying “we are more involved in the entire region than almost any other member of NATO” and that this is “sufficient.” Major questions remain too about how the U.S. really sees its own role and where European forces could make a tangible difference. Russia has openly trashed a Europe-backed plan for peace. Calvin Bailey, a Labour MP on the U.K. House of Commons defense committee, said that while the group is “playing a vital role… the capabilities and plans we offer in to this process must be properly resourced and credible for this to work.” The U.K. Conservative Party has questioned whether the government has really thought its commitments through. The second British government official cited above insisted this criticism was misplaced, arguing clear operational expectations can only be set after a ceasefire agreement is actually reached.  But John Foreman, former British military attaché to Russia, played down the significance of Europe’s military contribution as a whole. He argued that the coalition’s main utility is “as a political grouping which can bridge NATO, EU and the rest of the world.” It is, he said, “never going to be able to provide credible security guarantees — only the U.S. with perhaps key allies can do this, as no one wants to fight the Russians if peace breaks down.” Nette Nöstlinger contributed to this report.

KYIV – Six people were killed and 13 wounded in Kyiv alone as Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine with missiles and drones overnight, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service reported on Tuesday morning. Ukraine’s drones simultaneously attacked Russia’s Rostov and Krasnodar regions, wounding 16 people and killing two, local governors said in Telegram posts. The reciprocal strikes come against the backdrop of another round of peace talks initiated by the United States. Washington initially wanted Kyiv to agree to a 28-point peace plan backed by and favoring Russia. After the Kremlin rejected the EU’s counterproposal, Ukraine and the U.S. worked up a slimmed-down version of the original plan. American officials are meeting their Russian counterparts in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, announced on X that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the U.S. “at the earliest possible date in November to finalize the final stages and reach an agreement with President Trump.” In Ukraine, Russia targeted civilian and energy infrastructure in the Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions, Zelenskyy said in a morning statement. “In total, the Russians used 22 different missiles of various types and over 460 drones,” Zelenskyy said. Moldova and Romania also reported drone incursions into their airspace during the attacks. “Weapons and air defense systems are important, as is the sanctions pressure on the aggressor. There can be no pauses in assistance,” Zelenskyy added. “What matters most now is that all partners move toward diplomacy together, through joint efforts. Pressure on Russia must deliver results.” Ukrainian Army General Staff said they had targeted an aircraft repair plant and a drone production company in the Rostov region, and an oil terminal in Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar region. The Krasnodar region reported one of the longest and most massive attacks by Ukraine. “Six residents of the region were injured, at least 20 houses in five municipalities were damaged,” Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratiev said. In the nearby region of Rostov, the Ukrainian drone attack killed at least two people and wounded 10, and damaged several warehouses and 12 residential buildings, local Governor Yuri Sliusar said.

BRUSSELS — EU foreign ministers will be briefed on Thursday about a spate of sabotage attempts and airspace incursions that Russia’s neighbors say marks a “very dangerous phase of escalation” by the Kremlin, and one that endangers civilians. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys told POLITICO that the Kremlin’s shadowy campaign of subversion shows “we are reaching the hot phases of escalation.” The comments come after Poland concluded that a Sunday explosion that damaged railway tracks in the east of the country had been an act of sabotage backed by the Kremlin. “This is a very dangerous phase of escalation and we should address it really seriously because we are minutes from big casualties here,” said Budrys, who will present his concerns his counterparts at Thursday’s Foreign Affairs Council. “If it would be successful, these operations, this sabotage that was conducted in Poland, we would be talking in a different environment, with dead people as a consequence.” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski will give ministers an update during the session in Brussels, as an investigation gets underway into the suspected railway sabotage. Warsaw said Tuesday that military-grade C-4 explosives had been used in what appeared to be an unsuccessful attempt to derail a train and film the ensuing carnage. It suspects two Ukrainian nationals working for Russia who have fled to Belarus. Despite the Polish incident, Budrys said the scope of the Kremlin’s actions is far wider. “Everyone thinks that on the eastern front line it is always more intense — it is not — when you count the real cases of sabotage elsewhere in continental Europe, there were more than there were in the Baltics and in Poland.” Suspicious drones have been reported across the EU, sparking alerts from Copenhagen to Belgium, while hundreds of incidents have been probed as potential efforts to destabilize countries and intimidate the public. Globsec, a Prague-based think tank, calculated there were more than 110 acts of sabotage and attempted attacks carried out in Europe between January and July, mainly in Poland and France, by people with links to Russia. Speaking on Wednesday, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said: “Russia is trying to do two things: On one hand to test us, to see how far they can go … And next they also try to sow fear within our society.” Earlier this week, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called on European countries to react to Russia’s provocations. “We are under attack and the hybrid bombs continue to fall: The time to act is now,” he said. Lithuania also sounded the alarm after balloons sent from Russia’s ally Belarus repeatedly grounded planes in EU airspace. At Thursday’s meeting it will present a paper — seen by POLITICO — citing assessments that the incursions, ostensibly by cigarette smugglers, had the backing of Belarus’ authoritarian regime, which “is fully aware of these hybrid attacks and unwilling to prevent them.” The EU ministers will also consider a new package of sanctions against Russia — the 20th since the start of Moscow’s full-scale war in Ukraine — as well deterring Belarus from hybrid tactics with additional economic and political penalties.

Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas sounded the alarm for Europe on Wednesday after Warsaw accused Russian-backed operatives of carrying out an explosion targeting a Polish railway. “It is clear that these kinds of attacks are an extreme danger also for our critical infrastructure,” Kallas told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday. “We have to have a strong response because what Russia is trying to do is two things. On one hand to test us, to see how far they can go … And next they also try to sow fear within our society,” she said. Kallas was speaking hours after Poland said it was shutting down Russia’s last consulate in the country due to the railway sabotage, which Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said had been executed by Ukrainians working for Russia. The Polish incident is just the latest in a string of so-called hybrid attacks to hit European countries in recent weeks, from airspace violations by Russian warplanes to drone disruption at airports across the continent to cyber attacks and acts of disruptive vandalism. EU countries are debating how to respond to such attacks, with some leaders calling for a more robust response clearly attributing the attacks to Russia while others warn against coming out too strongly and spooking the public. “Now our response is also dependent on those two factors,” added Kallas. “They want to sow fear inside our societies … if our response is too strong then the fear increases, which is what Russia wants. So we really have to have a balanced approach,” she said. She added that Europe should “send a message of unity to Russia that they cannot get away with these attacks but at the same time give assurances to our society that there is nothing to be afraid of.” Her message echoed what Finnish President Alexander Stubb told POLITICO earlier this week: “My recommendation is to stay calm. Have a little bit more sisu [grit]. Don’t get too flustered.”

Poland and Romania both scrambled jets overnight in their airspaces in response to a Russian bombardment in western Ukraine, close to the borders of both NATO countries. Moscow unleashed a wave of drones and missiles on Ukraine overnight, targeting the western cities of Lviv and Ternopil. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes, which damaged residential apartment buildings far from the country’s eastern front line, killed nine people and injured dozens, with others possibly trapped under rubble. Warsaw’s operational command said in a post on X it had deployed “quick-reaction fighter pairs and an early warning aircraft” as a precaution, adding “ground-based air defence and radar surveillance systems” were at “the highest state of readiness.”  Polish authorities also shut two airports, Rzeszow and Lublin, in the southeast of the country amid Russia’s aerial assault.  Romania’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, announced it had scrambled four jets — two German Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft and two Romanian Air Force F-16s — shortly after midnight in response to a drone incursion about 5 miles into Romanian airspace.   Corneliu Pavel, the ministry’s spokesperson, told Romanian outlet Digi24 the jets had the green light to shoot down the drone but decided not to when its signal vanished.  Both countries’ operations involved NATO allies, with the Polish operational command thanking the alliance and fellow members Norway, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany for their assistance in monitoring Poland’s airspace.   Russia’s war in Ukraine has spilled over in recent days, with a Romanian village evacuated Monday when a gas tanker across the river in a Ukrainian port was set ablaze by a Russian strike.  A section of the train route between Warsaw and Lublin, which connects to Ukraine, was also blown up by saboteurs over the weekend, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.  Russia’s overnight assault on Ukraine also targeted Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Dnipro, Zelenskyy said, and he called on additional air support for Ukraine and more punishing sanctions on Moscow. “Every brazen attack against ordinary life proves that the pressure on Russia is still insufficient,” he warned.