Ukraine-Russia war latest: US and Canada scramble fighter jets to intercept Russian military planes off Alaska

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Nato and the European Union of using Ukraine to wage a “real war” against Moscow.

Lavrov claimed the West had provoked the conflict — a charge Britain dismissed as “false fantasy world distortions.”

Delivering his remarks at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers in New York, Lavrov repeated Moscow’s long-standing claim that it was Western actions that triggered the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“Another clear example is the crisis in Ukraine provoked by the West, through which NATO and the EU have … already declared a real war on my country and are directly involved in it,” he said.

He made no reference to Donald Trump’s comments earlier this week, instead repeating Russia’s position that it was the West’s actions that provoked the war in Ukraine.

Nato chief Mark Rutte has agreed with Donald Trump’s calls to shoot down any Russian aircraft that violate the alliance’s airspace.

Following a spate of incidents involving Russian aircraft crossing into eastern European airspace, Western diplomats have reportedly warned Moscow that further incidences will result in fighter jets being shot down.

In an interview with Fox News, Rutte endorsed this message, also delivered by Trump in public comments.

A drone was downed and detonated approximately 800 metres (875 yards) from the perimeter of Ukraine’s South Ukraine nuclear power plant overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement on Thursday.

The agency said its team at the site was informed that 22 drones were observed in the plant’s monitoring zone late on Wednesday and early on Thursday, with some flying as close as 500 metres.