Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned Europe is in a “pre-war era” and Ukraine must not be defeated by Russia for the good of the whole continent.
He said war was “no longer a concept from the past”, adding: “It’s real and it started over two years ago.”
His comments came after Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy system on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week Moscow had “no aggressive intentions” towards Nato countries.
The idea that his country, which has one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals, would attack Poland, the Baltic states and the Czech Republic – which are all members of the Nato alliance unlike Ukraine – was “complete nonsense”, he said.
However, he warned that if Ukraine used Western F-16 warplanes from airfields in other countries, they would become “legitimate targets, wherever they might be located”.
After Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022, relations with the West reached their lowest ebb since the worst days of the Cold War.
Almost 100 missiles and drones were used in the latest Russian attack on Ukraine, leaving several regions experiencing partial blackouts.
It was the second attack of its kind – in which Russia fires a large number of weapons simultaneously to overwhelm Ukraine’s defences – in the space of a week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the tactic “missile terror” and warned attacks on hydro-electric power plants could lead to a major environmental disaster.
Speaking to the BBC, the mayor of Kharkiv – where small businesses are relying on generators and industry is struggling amid blackouts – described the damage to the grid as “very serious” and said it could take two months to fully restore.
– BBC
