By James Rothwell

Copyright yahoo

Poland and its allies have scrambled fighter jets to ensure the safety of Nato airspace after a Russian airstrike near Ukraine’s western border.

“Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness,” the Polish armed forces said on Saturday.

Nearly all of Ukraine was under air raid alerts early on Sunday morning following warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks from Kyiv’s air force.

Poland scrambled the fighter jets after Moscow launched strikes near its border with Ukraine, but Polish military officials stressed the operation was “preventative and aimed at securing airspace in areas adjacent to the threatened area”.

The Warsaw-led operation, which ended at around 7am local time on Saturday, was launched partly because of a Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine last week.

During that escalation, Polish and other Nato fighter jets were forced to shoot down Russian drones flying over eastern Poland, causing some to crash into farmland and damage residential areas.

At the time, Poland said this was a blatant attempt at provocation by Russia and one that appeared to probe Nato’s air defences, as well as its readiness to respond to military threats.

Saturday’s scrambling of fighter jets also came hours after Russian aircraft violated Estonian airspace, in what Tallinn described as an “unprecedentedly brazen” escalation.

Estonia said three Russian MiG-31 jets, which can carry hypersonic missiles, entered its airspace via the Gulf of Finland without permission before circling for 12 minutes. In response, Nato sent Italian F-35 jets stationed in Estonia to intercept the aircraft.

Russia denied violating the Baltic state’s aircraft, with a spokesman claiming the incident involved a “scheduled flight… in strict compliance with international airspace regulations and did not violate the borders of other states, as confirmed by objective monitoring”.

Moscow launched wider attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, which killed at least three people and targeted the country’s civilian areas, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.

“The enemy’s target was our infrastructure, residential areas and civilian enterprises,” the Ukrainian president said, referring to attacks in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy and Kharkiv.

Mr Zelensky added that a missile equipped with cluster munitions struck a building in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine. Russia, along with the US and Ukraine, is not party to the convention on cluster munitions, which bans their usage.

Credit: SESU_UA / X

“Each such strike is not a military necessity but a deliberate strategy by Russia to intimidate civilians and destroy our infrastructure,” Mr Zelensky continued.

He said he is hopeful that upcoming talks in New York with Donald Trump will bring his country closer to an agreement that includes security guarantees for Kyiv.

“I would like to receive signals for myself on how close we are to understanding that the security guarantees from all partners will be the kind we need,” he said.

Security guarantees are, for Kyiv, a crucial part of any ceasefire pact with Russia because they would prevent Moscow from breaking the agreement and launching a renewed invasion.

However, the Trump administration has repeatedly ruled out Nato membership for Ukraine, which would be the strongest deterrent against further Russian aggression.Mr Zelensky went on to say it was important that the West is ready to impose tougher sanctions on Russia if the next round of peace talks were to fail.

“If the war continues and there is no movement toward peace, we expect sanctions,” he added.