NATO country orders evacuations as families receive Russia alert

A Russian drone crashed near the town of Solca, around 15 miles from the Ukrainian border, forcing nearby schools to cancel their classes.

Poland has evacuated two key crossings on its border with Ukraine after a fresh wave of Russian air strikes prompted security fears close to NATO territory, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.

The Dorohusk and Zosin crossings were cleared as a precaution in response to what officials described as an aerial threat lasting around 20 minutes. Thousands of residents in eastern Poland’s Lublin and Podkarpackie regions also received emergency alerts on their phones as the attacks unfolded.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev shortly after the evacuations, Mr Tusk warned that the months ahead could prove especially dangerous, the Mirror reports.

“This situation compels us to act very consistently here in Poland, to cooperate with Ukraine, but also to warn our European partners that these are truly difficult times,” the Prime Minister said, adding, “We need to be well prepared for the coming weeks and months. Autumn and winter could be truly critical.”

Further overnight strikes on Ukraine featured an unspecified number of hypersonic and ballistic missiles, 282 drones and other weapons, Ukraine’s air force estimated, killing two people.

One of the victims was in the car park of a maternity hopsital in the capital city of Kyiv. Six others were killed in an attack which struck a farm in Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country.

NATO jets were scrambled in Polish and Romanian airspace overnight and on Wednesday morning (September 23). Posting on social media, Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command said fighter jets were dispatched “to ensure safety” due to Russian “strikes using jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles on targets in western Ukraine.”

No violations of Polish airspace were recorded, and the jets returned to base roughly an hour after setting off, officials said. In Romania, a Russian drone crashed near the town of Solca, around 15 miles from the Ukrainian border, forcing nearby schools to cancel their classes.

The drone was flying “in national airspace” for four minutes, according to Romania’s Ministry of Defence, before falling near the town of Solca in Suceava County. No casualties or material damage were recorded, the ministry reported.

Elsewhere, Moldovan authorities reported four “aerial objects” illegally entering the country’s airspace on Thursday morning. Unlike Romania, Moldova is not a NATO member. President Zelensky said Russia launched its attack while people slept, with flashes from the explosions lighting up the sky in Kyiv.

“As people were sleeping, flashes from explosions ⁠lit up the sky,” Zelensky, who was in New York for the UN General Assembly, said on Telegram. Once again, the main targets of their strike were Kyiv and civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, a maternity hospital, energy infrastructure, and logistics.”

He also urged the US to “respond strongly,” adding: “We need ballistic interceptors to protect lives.”

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