NATO scrambled fighter jets in Polish and Romanian airspace overnight as Russia carried out massive drone and missile strikes in western Ukraine, killing at least 25 people, three of them children.

While the U.S. has taken part in previous iterations of the military exercise, this year's U.S. footprint was smaller as allied nations are pressed by the Trump administration to put more into European defense.

A spokesperson for Poland’s special services minister accused Russian intelligence Tuesday of orchestrating a railway blast that destroyed a key track on a route used to deliver aid to Ukraine. Jacek Dobrzyński told reporters that "everything indicates" Russian intelligence was behind the sabotage of Polish railways.

Vladimir Putin told his top officials that Donald Trump's peace plan could be the 'basis' of ending the war - just before an attack on Ukraine forced NATO to scramble war planes overnight

NATO was forced to scramble fighter jets after the Russian forces launched one of the biggest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine. At least 25 people have been killed and 75 injured – with

Tensions rose after a blast damaged the Warsaw-Lublin rail line, which has been used to deliver aid to Ukraine, and a Russian missile attack killed at least 25 people in Ternopil.

Romania evacuated residents after a suspected Russian drone strike hit a Turkish LPG tanker in Ukraine's Izmail port.

Business Insider observed US, Polish, and Romanian forces learning to use the Merops system, which has been combat-proven in Ukraine.

The drone incursions and the instability on NATO’s eastern flank stem from Russia’s war in Ukraine, now approaching the end of its fourth year. The conflict has become a crucible for drone development, transforming the battlefield into a testing zone for new technology which now has applications elsewhere in Europe.

Poland said on Wednesday it would close the last Russian consulate in its territory and deploy thousands of soldiers to protect infrastructure in response to a railway explosion it blames on Moscow.