Russian strikes kill three in Ukraine as Putin warns Europe against sending troops — SkimNews
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- Russian strikes killed three civilians and wounded dozens across Ukraine Saturday, part of Moscow's intensifying air campaign using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to target the power grid ahead of winter.
- Putin, speaking at the BRICS summit in India, said European troop deployment to Ukraine would mean 'a war with Russia' and denied Moscow poses any threat to Europe ('there is no such threat and never has been').
- Odesa was hit in what regional head Oleh Kiper called a 'massive attack,' wounding 35 people and completely destroying the upper floors of a residential high-rise; two also died in Zaporizhzhia and one in Kryvyi Rih.
- Polish PM Donald Tusk said two border incidents this week—two killed by drones at the Starokozache crossing between Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday, and a foiled 'direct threat' to a Polish-Ukrainian crossing on Wednesday—were previews of potential Russian provocations at Europe's frontier.
- Zelensky told Deutsche Welle he would meet Putin if both leaders are invited to the December G20 summit in Miami, though Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said Saturday the possibility of Putin attending had not yet been discussed.
Why it matters: Putin's explicit framing of any European troop deployment as 'a war with Russia' raises the cost of peacekeeping proposals some European leaders have already backed, while the simultaneous border incidents in Poland and Moldova show Moscow probing Europe's eastern edge. Zelensky's openness to a G20 sit-down with Putin is the only diplomatic track the article names—and the Kremlin hasn't even discussed whether its leader will show up.
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