Trump vows to help defend Poland, Baltic countries if Russian escalations continue

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sept. 21 he would help defend Poland and the Baltic nations if Russia continues to escalate.

U.S. President Donald Trump again urged European countries to stop importing oil from Russia, during a dinner in Mount Vernon, Virginia, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 21.

The aircraft, an Il-20M, departed from Russia and entered international airspace without establishing communication, making visual identification the only way to confirm its presence.

The analysis shows that 42% of these deaths occurred within the first year after President Vladimir Putin announced Russia's month-long "partial mobilization" in September 2022.

The rare strike marks only the third visually confirmed destruction of such a vehicle since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

This week on Ukraine This Week, the Kyiv Independent’s Anna Belokur covers the ongoing response to the Sept. 9 violation of Polish airspace by Russian drones — the first instance of NATO engaging Russia militarily on its own soil since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russian Colonel General Alexander Lapin has long been associated with battlefield setbacks since 2022.

"The Russian invaders' air fleet in the temporarily occupied Crimea has been reduced again as a result of successful combat operations," Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) said.

Although the platform had been known for about a year, it was only now publicly displayed.

"We saw on Friday that NATO is functioning very efficiently... even to the point that if we were truly forced to use the last resort, which is the use of force, then there was a readiness for that as well," Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said.

Ukraine's Air Force said Russian forces launched 54 Shahed-type attack and decoy drones overnight, of which air defenses intercepted 33.

The number includes 1,010 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

Polish authorities on Sept. 20 discovered what may be the remnants of the last of 19 drones downed over Polish territory following a Russian violation of Warsaw's airspace over a week prior.

"Agents of our movement blew up the railway tracks in Smolensk, leading to an aerospace factory. This plant produces Kh-59 missiles for the Russian Ministry of Defense," the Atesh group claimed.