Key events
Russia’s aggression on Ukraine ‘not an isolated conflict,’ but Russia’s ‘direct challenge,’ Poland’s Nawrocki says
Opening the Bucharest Nine meeting this morning, Romania’s Nicușor Dan said the meeting was taking place in a “dynamic international situation,” pointing to the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the threats experienced by surrounding countries, including Romania, but also Moldova.
Talking about Ukraine and Moldova, he stressed the continuing support for the two countries, adding that “we must not only make [it] declarative, but we must make it effective, because our security depends on their security.”
He also urged countries to increase defence spending and turn it into capabilities, developing a “solid transatlantic military industrial base” and confirming their commitment to act at the upcoming Nato summit in Ankara.
Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki said that when the format was first invented, “some believed that we were sounding the alarm too loudly.”
“We warned that Russia’s revisionism was not temporary; we warned that imperial thinking had returned to Europe, and that deterrence could not exist only on paper. Today, nobody can say they were not warned.”
He said that Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine “is not an isolated conflict,” but rather “a direct challenge to the entire Euro-Atlantic security order.”
Our region is no longer Nato’s periphery; it is Nato’s strategic centre of gravity.
Nawrocki said that the Ankara summit will need to send a clear signal that “Nato is united, Nato is ready, and Nato will defend every inch of allied territory.”
“The Ankara summit must therefore strengthen Nato’s forward defence posture and demonstrate that the alliance possesses both the political will and the military capabilities necessary to deter aggression on every part of allied territory.”
Poland’s president ended with strong words of support for Ukraine:
“There should be no doubt as to who launched this brutal war. We must also remain fully aware of the role played by Belarus, which continues to support Russia’s war effort and enables hostile hybrid activities to be launched from its territory against Nato allies and partners.
We must collectively make sure that if a peace is to be reached just east of our borders, it has to be just.
The nations represented in this room understand, perhaps better than anyone, the cost of complacency. We know what happens when aggression is underestimated and when democratic nations hesitate.”
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy warns against Russian drones attack during day
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of possible waves of Russian drone attacks throughout the day, saying that more than a hundred drones were in Ukraine’s airspace, as Moscow has shifted tactics to strike increasingly during daylight hour, Reuters reported.
“Russia continues its strikes and is doing so brazenly – deliberately targeting our railway infrastructure and civilian sites in our cities,” he said in a post on X.
He added:
“Unfortunately, people were wounded and killed in these strikes; my condolences to all their families and loved ones. Yesterday, 14 regions came under attack throughout the day. Overnight, strikes targeted residential and railway infrastructure in the Dnipro and Kharkiv regions, port infrastructure in the Odesa region, and energy facilities in the Poltava region. At all levels, our warriors are countering these attacks, and 111 drones were shot down or jammed overnight alone.”
Morning opening: What to do about Russia
Jakub Krupa
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that despite some early positive signs about the US-Russia relations under Donald Trump, “nothing is happening” in reality as the peace process to end the war in Ukraine appears to be stuck.
Speaking to Russian media, Lavrov said that “good words” on potential cooperations with the US had brought no results so far as “nothing is happening in real life.”
“Aside from this regular dialogue – which is normal in relations between people and countries – everything else follows the pattern initiated by president Biden,” Lavrov said, pointing to sanctions against Russia in particular.
None of this will particularly worry the leaders of the Bucharest Nine, who meet in, well, Bucharest for their summit today.
The format, established in 2015, brings together the leaders of central eastern Europe and the Baltics with the leaders of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. This year, they will also be joined by some representatives of the Nordics.
Romania’s Nicușor Dan and Poland’s Karol Nawrocki are the hosts, and they will be joined by Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte.
I will bring you all the key lines from their meeting, but it’s safe to assume that the questions of Russia, Ukraine and the broader regional security amid US moves to pull out troops from Europe will be high on the agenda.
It’s Wednesday, 13 May 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
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