Fighter jets on a Nato air defence mission shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace early on Friday, Latvia’s armed forces said on X.
The armed forces later lifted an air threat alert in regions near Russia.
Finland, another Nato and EU member that shares a border with Russia, also temporarily restricted aviation and maritime traffic in parts of the eastern Gulf of Finland as a precaution against possible drones, its defence forces said on X.
Countries bordering Russia and Ukraine periodically issue air threat alerts and intercept drones as Moscow and Kyiv continue to exchange attacks more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Meanwhile, a Russian military official who defected from Ukraine has been killed in an explosion in Russian-annexed Crimea, according to reports in Russia.
The man has been identified in the reports as Robert Shageyev, according to Russian outlet Astra, although he is yet to be officially identified.
Putin’s visit to disputed island prompts strong reaction from Japan: ‘Absolutely unacceptabe’
Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Etorofu, one of the four Kuril Islands disputed between Russia and Japan, prompting a strong reaction from Tokyo.
Japan said the visit makes improving already strained relations with Moscow more difficult.
Prime minister Sanae Takaichi said it “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people and is absolutely unacceptable”, adding: “We hope that the Russian side will take the seriousness of this matter fully to heart.”
The island – known as Iturup in Russia and in Japan as Etorofu – was seized by Soviet forces in 1945 after Japan’s surrender in World War II.
Japan continues to claim the four islands and has made their return a condition for signing a formal peace treaty with Russia.
Relations have deteriorated further since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Japan joining Western sanctions against Moscow.
Putin’s visit also comes amid Russia’s broader efforts to assert historical territorial claims.
Ukrainian drones target Wildberries logistics hub and oil refinery in Bashkortostan
Ukrainian drones targeted a logistics hub owned by Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries and sparked a fire at one of the country’s major oil refineries in Bashkortostan on Thursday, according to regional officials.
Bashkortostan head Radiy Khabirov said 16 drones were shot down over Salavat and another five over the nearby Chishminsky district, according to The Moscow Times.
The areas are about 1,200km east of Moscow and more than 1,300km from Ukraine.
“Two people were injured” in the attacks and were receiving treatment in hospital, Khabirov said on Telegram.
He said falling drone debris caused a fire in an “industrial area”.
Exiled outlet Astra identified the site as the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat refinery, which accounts for about 2.7 per cent of Russia’s total refining capacity.
The refinery halted operations after being damaged in a drone attack last month.
Wildberries said a fire also broke out in an “industrial zone” housing one of its facilities.
The company said staff had been evacuated beforehand and that no retail goods were stored at the site.
Russia's Baltic Sea port damaged in drone attack, governor says
Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga was damaged in a drone attack, the Leningrad region’s governor said, without immediately providing details on the extent of the damage or any casualties.
Two killed in Russian drone attack on passenger train, Zelensky says
Two people were killed in Russia’s drone attack on a passenger train in Odesa region, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday.
“Today in the Odesa region, the Russians once again destroyed an ordinary passenger train locomotive with a jet-powered drone. There were 340 people on the train,” he said.
“Whoever was operating that drone certainly could not have been unaware that the target was entirely civilian,” he added.
The two dead were the train’s engineer and assistant engineer, according to officials.
Nato jets shoot down drone after it enters Latvian airspace
Fighter jets on a Nato air defence mission shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace early on Friday, Latvia’s armed forces said on X.
The armed forces later lifted an air threat alert in regions near Russia.
Finland, another Nato and EU member that shares a border with Russia, also temporarily restricted aviation and maritime traffic in parts of the eastern Gulf of Finland as a precaution against possible drones, its defence forces said on X.
Latvia’s armed forces did not immediately provide details about the drone or where it came from.
Countries bordering Russia and Ukraine periodically issue air threat alerts and intercept drones as Moscow and Kyiv continue to exchange attacks more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Kyiv confirms strike on oil and petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan
Ukraine's military struck an oil refinery and petrochemical complex in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, causing a fire, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Thursday.
We earlier reported that Russian authorities said Ukraine had attacked an industrial area in Russia’s Bashkortostan region.
It said on the Telegram app that the complex was located about 1,300 km (808 miles) from the Ukrainian border and was involved in supplying fuel to the Russian troops.
Wildberries, the online retailer that Kyiv has been targeted in a drone campaign which aims at “bringing the war home” to ordinary Russians, also confirmed that one if its facilities in the region was set on fire by the attack.
Russia reports young child dead in Ukrainian strike on naval base
Ukrainian forces launched a massive overnight attack on Russia's Novorossiysk naval base using drones, missiles, and unmanned boats, president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed.
Here’s all you need to know in just five bullet points with The Independent’s Bulletin.
Ukraine needs 5% of US Patriot interceptors to survive winter, Zelensky says
Ukraine needs five per cent of US Patriot interceptor stocks to get through the winter and 10 per cent to destroy all Russian ballistic missiles, Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN.
He said Ukraine had “two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025”, while Russia was firing twice as many ballistic missiles each month.
Zelensky said he was asking the US to sell Ukraine 5 per cent of its interceptor stocks.
Zelensky said Ukraine was currently receiving only “1 per cent” of what the US makes.
“From 1 per cent to 5 per cent... I have some months and millions [of] phone calls and anything else. I do some things which I can’t even share. It doesn’t mean that it’s out of the law. But I can’t speak about it
Russia cannot claim ‘victory’, Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov says
Nobel laureate and former chief editor of newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, said that Russia cannot claim victory in Ukraine because the war has devastated both countries, and that Ukraine may be destroyed but cannot be conquered.
He told the BBC: “There will never be ‘victory’. Because what has been going on for nearly five years – no matter how it ends – can no longer be considered a victory.
“It cannot be a victory when two Slavic nations have ripped a million people to shreds. Or more than a million.”
He said: “It seems to me that the situation with Ukraine now is this: you can destroy it, but you cannot conquer it. What do I mean by destroy? Continued escalation all the way to the use of a nuclear weapon.”
He continued: “All those political experts who say ‘Putin thinks this’ or ‘Putin is scared of that’…they’re all charlatans.
“It’s in the same league as astrology. Nobody knows what’s going on in Vladimir Putin’s head. And I don’t know.
“I see things only as a journalist. I study big data. And since the beginning of the year, the need to use nuclear weapons has been mentioned more than 500 times. When wackos say this, I pay no attention. But I’ve heard it discussed on state TV. And at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a state-run event, one of the speakers talked up the use of nuclear weapons as something favourable, something good.”
Russia's Wildberries says attack causes fire at industrial area
An air attack caused a fire at an industrial area in Russia's Bashkortostan region where online retailer Wildberries has a facility, the company said on Thursday.
No goods were stored at the premises, the company said.
Wildberries warehouses have been targeted in a series of attacks by Ukrainian drones since July 18.