3 Russian Mi-8 helicopters, radar station destroyed in occupied Crimea, Ukraine's HUR says

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.

"Given Russia’s brutality against the Ukrainian people, it was only right that Russian government funds in the United States be seized and repurposed to help Ukraine rebuild its country under the REPO Act," Republican Senator Jim Risch said.

"Security guarantees, in essence, are a deterrent. That deterrent has to be plausible, and in order for it to be plausible, it has to be strong," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.

"What happened in recent days in Poland and Estonia, and what has been happening in Ukraine for four years, concerns us all, because if we don't remain united, sooner or later it will happen to us too," Czech President Petr Pavel said.