Eurofighters scramble after incursion by fighter and tanker; Russian anti-tank drone kills two Ukrainian journalists at petrol station. What we know on day 1,339
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Lithuania said two Russian planes entered its airspace on Thursday: a Sukhoi SU-30 fighter and an IL-78 tanker flying from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. In response, Nato scrambled two Typhoon Eurofighters from its air patrol mission in the Baltic. The Russian planes went 700 metres into Lithuanian airspace before leaving after 18 seconds, probably during aerial refuelling training, said the Lithuanian military. The foreign ministry in Vilnius said it had summoned the charge d’affaires from the Russian embassy and issued a “strong protest”. Russia’s defence ministry denied the incursion had taken place. In September, three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets lingered for 12 minutes in Estonian airspace, prompting protests at the UN security council and a warning from the Nato council.
Two Ukrainian journalists were killed by a high-powered Russian drone in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Thursday in an attack described by Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman as a war crime. Olena Hubanova and Yevhen Karmazin from Ukraine’s state-funded Freedom television channel, were hit by a Lancet drone while in their car at a petrol station, said Vadym Filashkin, the Donetsk region governor. Freedom, which broadcasts in Russian, also confirmed their deaths. The general prosecutor’s office said a colleague of the two journalists had also been wounded and that it had opened a war crime investigation. It posted a photo of a destroyed red car and an image of two flak jackets marked “press” in the boot. Lancets are usually reserved for attacks on tanks and armoured vehicles. Last week, a correspondent for Russia’s RIA news agency was killed and another wounded in Zaporizhzhia in what RIA said was a Ukrainian drone strike.
