By Athena Papakosta

Its Ministry of Defense of Russia announced on Sunday that Russian armed forces had captured the Ukrainian city of Novokhrodivka, moving ever closer to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.

The new territorial gains of the Russian armed forces are recorded despite the surprise ground attack of Ukrainians in the Russian Kursk Oblast and cannot be ignored as Pokrovsk is one of the main strongholds and an important hub in the Donetsk region.

In more detail, the capture of this city, which before the start of the war had 60,000 inhabitants, will be a devastating blow to the Ukrainian defense and the supply lines of the Ukrainian armed forces. It will bring Russia closer to its goal, which is none other than the occupation of the entire Donetsk region. As the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, emphasized last week from Vladivostok, the conquest of the Ukrainian Donbass is Russia’s “number one priority”.

At the same time, the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz called for new peace talks between the two sides. As, in fact, he emphasized on the state German channel ZDF, he spoke with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and together they agreed on the need for a new peace conference with the participation of Russia.

However, two NATO member states, Romania and Latvia, announced that Russian drones had violated their airspace.

In particular, according to what was announced by Bucharest, a Russian drone penetrated the airspace of Romania on Saturday night.

“The radar system detected and tracked the trajectory of a drone that entered the national airspace and subsequently exited it in the direction of Ukraine,” the Romanian Defense Ministry announced, noting that the incident occurred while Moscow was launching attacks “against political targets and port infrastructure’ along the Danube River in Ukraine. As it was also pointed out, F-16s were deployed to control Romania’s airspace while the country was in constant communication with its NATO allies.

For its part, Latvia said a Russian drone crashed near the city of Rezekne, 55 kilometers west of Russia, and possibly entered Latvian airspace from Moscow’s ally Belarus.

With his post on Platform X, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andriy Sibiha stressed that these violations are “a reminder that the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation go beyond the borders of Ukraine” adding that “the collective response of the allies should be maximum support to Ukraine to put an end to Russian aggression and (… ) to preserve peace in Europe”.