WW3 fears erupt after apocalyptic strike seen from NATO border - fighter jets scrambled
Dramatic pictures show the huge blaze erupting.
A huge overnight Ukrainian strike on Vladimir Putin’s key oil-exporting port triggered a fire so large it was visible from NATO state Estonia. Port infrastructure at Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea went up in flames following the drone strike, visible across the Narva Bay from Estonia - a distance of at least 15 miles. Flights were disrupted in Putin's home city of St. Petersburg, and Helsinki also imposed airspace restrictions in the eastern Gulf of Finland. NATO fighter jets were scrambled in Lithuania after it detected an "unidentified aerial object" and warned of threats to neighbouring Latvia, close to its border with Russia.
Ust-Luga is a strategic port in the Gulf of Finland, a key hub for Putin’s war economy, exporting oil, petroleum products, coal, sulphur, mineral fertilisers, gas condensate, LNG, and container cargo.
The strike came on the second day of peace talks brokered by the US in Abu Dhabi. Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian senior military and intelligence officers at the talks claimed Putin’s troops were in control of half the territory in the Donetsk region currently held by Ukrainian troops.
This amounts to an area of around 1,000 square miles, almost twice the size of Greater London. Zelensky said: “Our team told them, ‘We don't understand how you can even say such things. We have video recordings, photographs, and other evidence that these territories are under our control.’
“That’s the problem. Putin lives in a different reality. Of course, he will tell the Americans that he needs one or two months to completely occupy eastern Ukraine.
“I could draw him a picture of me completely occupying Russia. But it's not true. The positive thing is that the American side confirmed the Ukrainian assessment of what is happening on the battlefield.”
He again demanded to meet Putin face to face to thrash out a peace agreement.
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