EUROPE HAS ENTERED A 'PRE-WAR ERA' AND IS NOT PREPARED FOR WHAT PUTIN WILL DO IF HE DEFEATS UKRAINE, POLAND'S PM WARNS AS NATO JETS ARE SCRAMBLED TO PROTECT THE COUNTRY'S AIRSPACE
- His warning came as Russia launched another large-scale air attack on Ukraine
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has declared Europe is now in a 'pre-war era' and warned a Ukrainian defeat to Russia would only embolden Vladimir Putin.
'I know it sounds devastating, especially to people of the younger generation, but we have to mentally get used to the arrival of a new era. The pre-war era,' he said in a speech to foreign journalists.
'I don't want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past. It's real and it started over two years ago.
'We are living in the most critical moment since the end of the Second World War... literally any scenario is possible,' he concluded.
His warning came as Russia launched another large-scale attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure with a mass barrage of drones and airstrikes hitting regions across the country overnight, Kyiv officials claimed.
The bombardment also prompted Poland to scramble its own warplanes to protect its airspace from any wayward drones, missiles or bombers.
Last week, Warsaw demanded an explanation from Moscow after one of its missiles strayed briefly into Polish airspace during a major missile attack on Ukraine, prompting the NATO member to activate F-16 fighter jets.
Romania's defence ministry also said an investigation has been launched after fragments that appear to be from a drone were identified on its territory on Thursday evening in an agricultural area of Braila county, close to the border with Ukraine.
It did not provide additional details, although since the start of the full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, NATO member Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, air raid warnings across the country continued through the night as the strike targeted 10 separate regions, Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a statement on Telegram.
The Ukrainian air force reported that 60 Shahed drones and 39 missiles of varying types were seen across the country, of which 58 drones and 26 missiles were ultimately shot down by air defences.
Ukraine's state-owned grid operator, Ukrenergo, said that the attack deliberately targeted energy infrastructure, including thermal and hydroelectric power plants across central and western regions.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private electricity operator, also said that three of its thermal power plants had been damaged in the attack.
Elsewhere, five people were wounded during the attack in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, said local governor Serhii Lysak. The injured included a five-year-old girl.
Putin earlier this week reiterated that Moscow has no plans to attack any NATO states, accusing European leaders such as Tusk of fomenting fear of a Russian invasion that will never come to justify sending more weapons to Ukraine.
But he also vowed his forces would shoot down any F-16 fighter jets that Western countries supply to Ukraine, adding that any NATO planes used for operations in Ukraine would be 'legitimate targets', even if they're based in at a third country's airfield.
'We have no aggressive intentions towards (NATO) states,' Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript released on Thursday.
'The idea that we will attack some other country - Poland, the Baltic States, and the Czechs are also being scared - is complete nonsense. It's just drivel.
'If they supply F-16s, and they are talking about this and are apparently training pilots, this will not change the situation on the battlefield. We will destroy the aircraft just as we destroy today tanks, armoured vehicles and other equipment.
'Of course, if they will be used from airfields in third countries, they become for us legitimate targets, wherever they might be located,' he concluded.
Putin's remarks yesterday comments earlier in the day by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that the aircraft should arrive in Ukraine in the near future.
Ukraine, now more than two years into a full-fledged war against Russia, has sought F-16s for many months.
Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands are among countries which have pledged to donate F-16s.
Meanwhile, a coalition of NATO countries has promised to help train Ukrainian pilots in their use.
But Putin said that the West was simply playing up the fake threat of a Russian invasion of a NATO state to justify ramping up its war capabilities and providing further aid to Ukraine.
The Russian President claimed the West's trumpeting of perceived aggression from Moscow was just 'another way to deceive your population and extract additional costs from people, force them to bear this burden on their shoulders, that's all.'
His visit to the Russian air base in Torzhok coincided with nuclear war games in Siberia, as soldiers from a regiment of Yars strategic missile launchers in the Irkutsk region trained at repelling an attack by subversion groups in a military crisis exercise.
'The Yars regiment has gone on combat patrol routes during a command-staff exercise,' said the Russian defence ministry as it released footage of the war games.
'It will change field positions and disperse missile battalions that will overcome contaminated areas.
'Specific attention is paid to repelling attacks of subversion groups.'
Yars missiles are currently the main element of the ground-based component of the Russian strategic nuclear force.
The Mach 25 missiles have a range of up to 7,500 miles, enabling a strike on the U.S.
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