NATO was forced to scramble war plans after Vladimir Putin launched a savage new attack on Ukraine.
Russia pummelled crucial military targets and civilian areas in a five-hour missile and drone barrage.
However Moscow also came under attack for the third night in a row, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy defied Trump’s order not to target the Russian capital.
The exchange of fire came after Russian orders instructing soldiers to behead a Ukrainian prisoner of war and stick his head on a pike were allegedly overheard by the country’s security services.
The Kremlin stepped up its assault on Ukraine last night, bombarding the strategic city of Pavlohrad in the worst ever attack on the region.
It saw a fire station in the city was destroyed, with a five-story residential building also hit.
An apartment block and a pizzeria were also up in flames after Russian drone and missile attacks on the port city of Odesa, which left one woman dead.
As many as 400 drones were used in the onslaught, triggering an emergency response from NATO.
Fighter jets from the alliance were scrambled from military air bases as a defensive measure.
The planes were in the skies to protect Poland’s border with Ukraine, which is 332 miles long, NATO said.
Ukraine also responded with a drone attack on Moscow, with around fourteen drones reportedly needing to be shot down by Russian air defences.
Earlier this week, US President Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky not to strike Moscow, after giving Russia a 50-day deadline to stop the war.
He was contradicting a Financial Times report, which claimed Trump privately asked Zelensky if he could use long-range missiles supplied by the US on Moscow, and escalate attacks.
The exchange of fire last night followed horrific instructions allegedly overheard by Ukrainian intelligence from Russian forces.
Russian soldiers were told to behead a Ukrainian prisoner of war and stick it on a pike, the secret service the GUR claimed.
The instructions from Putin’s ‘favourite brigade’ were allegedly overheard on the battlefield two days ago.
The GUR said the order was issued by Russia’s notorious 155th Marine Brigade, which is suspected of multiple war crimes in the conflict.
The message allegedly stated: ‘Cut off the head, impale it on a pike. Throw it the f*** away.’
It is not possible to immediately verify the GUR claim but Putin’s troops have been accused of beheadings before.
Last August footage emerged of a Russian soldier brandishing what appeared to be the severed head of a Ukrainian soldier, impaled on a stake.
It was thought to have been filmed near a Russian border point in Belgorod region, and was reported as a war crime to the United Nations by the Kyiv authorities.
The Russian serviceman is heard saying: ‘The dead men of the 155th Brigade of the Pacific Fleet salute you, Khokhols [Ukrainians].’
The soldier continued: ‘Today some of you have had your heads blown off by our pressure. It will be the same every time we meet. The dead have no pity. The dead men know no fear. The dead are coming for you, Khokhol.’
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