Ukraine-Russia war latest: Poland says Putin is planning to launch drone or missile attack on a Nato country

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk says Russia is planning hybrid strikes with drones or missiles targeting Nato countries supporting Ukraine, potentially including Poland.

The warning came as “a massive attack on ​the ⁠western part of Ukraine – very close to the Polish border,” took place, with Poland repeatedly forced to scramble its aircraft.

While Poland’s airspace was not breached, Tusk warned that Russia was planning to strike Nato territory and then pretend the attack was "accidental".

This, he told the parliament, would be in a bid to "paralyse or at least weaken the motivation of Nato countries" to rush to the defence of the member state coming under attack.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian forces carried a barrage of attacks on Ukrainian cities, including a ⁠strike on an industrial park west of Kyiv that killed one person, a local official said.

And in Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged an oil ⁠refinery in the city of Yaroslavl, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed.

For the first time, the election in Russia includes residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the invasion.

Ukraine has called the vote illegal.

"Your choice and resolve will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our fighters, that we are a united people, bound by shared values, historical memory, and love for the Motherland," Putin said in an address before the vote.

With the result predetermined and Vladimir Putin's political dominance under no immediate threat, analysts say the Kremlin sees the election as a key effort to mobilise public support for the war and legitimise its action.

The Kremlin has stifled even the slightest signs of dissent before three days of voting that began Friday in Russia's Far East.

The only party that dared to criticise the war was unceremoniously removed from the ballot, and a few anti-war politicians have been imprisoned or forced to flee abroad.

Russian drones have hit ⁠Nova Poshta's logistics hub near ⁠the ​Ukrainian ⁠Black Sea ⁠port city ​of Odesa ⁠as well ‌as a cargo ‌vessel in ‌the nearby ⁠port of Chornomorsk, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram, citing ‌the ​use ‌of ⁠both for ⁠military purposes.

Regional polls have opened in Russia for the first parliamentary election since the country's war on Ukraine that began four years ago.

They come amid plummeting approval ratings for Vladimir Putin, mounting casualties on the frontline and minimal territorial gains in the grinding war.

The country’s electoral system is tightly controlled and Putin’s United Russia party is expected to retain its majority in the State Duma, which comprises 450 members. It currently has 310 seats and needs to win at least 300 in order to retain its supermajority.

Russian forces carried a barrage of attacks on Ukrainian cities on Thursday, including a ⁠strike on an industrial park west of Kyiv that killed one person, a local official said.

Russia's military had previously carried out most of its attacks at night, but in ⁠recent weeks it has ​expanded ⁠them to daylight hours.

Vitali Bunechko, governor of Zhytomyr region, said the industrial park strike occurred near ⁠the town of Korosten.

The Ukrainian capital underwent ​a ⁠series of air alerts through ‌the day and its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said one strike hit a non-residential building, injuring one person.

In ‌the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, ‌regional governor Ivan Fedorov said Russian forces attacked a market, triggering a large blaze.

Pictures posted on social media showed the fire ⁠reducing the area to charred ruins. No casualties were recorded.A Russian attack also caused a fire in the southeastern city of Dnipro, injuring two people.

Due to leave office at the end of this year, UN secretary-general António Guterres has warned that the "huge geopolitical divide" and paralysis in the Security Council have created an environment of impunity, with powerful countries flouting international law and the UN Charter.

He cited the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the attacks on Iran by the United States, both veto-wielding council members, as examples.

"Many countries say, 'If superpowers can violate the law, why can't we?"' the secretary-general said.

"And so what we are seeing around the world is more and more situations in which countries simply do not care. They do whatever they want, knowing that there will be total impunity."

The violations and impunity have caused death and enormous destruction, he said, and the combination of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the broader Middle East conflict are having "a dramatic impact" on the world economy.

Food and energy prices are going up, interest rates are rising and developing countries face enormous difficulties in responding to the needs of their people.

He expressed hope that these problems will force people to realise that the obstacles can't be eliminated alone and require international cooperation.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said at the moment Russia was not ready for any peace talks "without the total capitulation of Ukraine."

"They are convinced the winter will be tragically critical for Ukraine," Tusk said. He said last winter Poland stepped in with deliveries when Ukraine's energy infrastructure came under attack, but if border crossings are destroyed, it will be much harder for Warsaw to offer such help this upcoming winter.

"Russia's goal is to destroy as much as possible the economy and logistics of Ukraine," Tusk said, adding that intelligence indicates continuous attacks of "very high frequency and intensity" on six main Ukrainian cities should be expected in the near future.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said Russia was more dangerous because it was increasingly using jet-powered drones, which fly higher and faster and thus are more difficult to detect by air defence before reaching their targets.

Tusk has been for months warning that Russia might be preparing a more serious hybrid attack against a Nato country. His warnings have gotten increasingly specific as he received intelligence from Nato, Ukrainian and US secret services, including the CIA, he said.

In recent days, Tusk has said Russia was now focusing on attacking border crossings between Ukraine and its European neighbors in order to disrupt delivery lines to Ukraine.

Four such incidents happened on Poland's border with Ukraine in the past week and several others took place in the last weeks on Ukraine's border with Moldova.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk warned on Thursday that Russia is planning hybrid strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine, among them Poland.

Russia will pretend the attacks are "accidental" in order to "paralyse or at least weaken the motivation of Nato countries" to rush to the defence of the member state coming under attack, Tusk said in a speech to the Polish parliament.

"There is a real risk that drones or other types of projectiles will enter the territory of one or several countries on the eastern flank and even cause destruction," Tusk warned.

"The official narration will be that it's an accident and there is no reason for Nato to think about a response," he added.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk announced on Thursday he would travel to Ukraine overnight to Friday, in what could be seen as an act of defiance against Russia after European leaders narrowly escaped a drone strike on a train near the Polish-Ukrainian border on Sunday. Officials usually keep their travel plans to Ukraine secret for security reasons.

In Kyiv, he said he would discuss with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky how to defend against new types of drones, as well as discuss further sanctions against Russia with partners including Slovakia.