French President Emmanuel Macron said that the threat posed by Russia's shadow operations was growing across Europe, and he had ordered measures to protect France's critical infrastructure from increasing Russian "hybrid attacks".
"The Russian hybrid threat against Europeans and against France has intensified," he said after a meeting with French political leaders, before he heads to the UN General Assembly week.
France's interior minister had met regional prefects to step up "vigilance in response to the Russian hybrid attacks", Mr Macron said after the meeting with presidential hopefuls and party leaders ahead of year's election.
He said he had ordered "the government to prepare a plan to protect our critical infrastructure" and the "most sensitive" defence industry and technology sites against drone and cyber-attacks.
The French president said that despite the Russian threats France would continue to support Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion of the pro-Western country in February 2022.
He also vowed that France would respond to Russia's shadow attacks.
"This will not go unanswered," Mr Macron said, without elaborating.
"The intention behind it is to intimidate us and to derail the effort to support the Ukrainians. The consequence will be the opposite," he added.
"We are not intimidated, because we know that what is at stake today in Ukraine is our security."
Zelensky welcomes leaders to regional summit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile has welcomed leaders and representatives from seven regional countries for talks on deepening co-operation, as overnight Russian strikes in multiple regions sparked fires and caused several deaths and injuries.
The inaugural summit of the so-called Carpathian Eight brings together Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary, with the European Union also involved.
It comes as US-mediated efforts to end Russia's full-scale invasion have stalled, with the issue of territorial concessions in eastern Ukraine among the central sticking points. Ukraine is also seeking security guarantees from partners for a deal.
The summit also comes as three days of voting began in Russia's first wartime parliamentary election, which features virtually no opposition to President Vladimir Putin's party and is all but certain to secure the Kremlin's political dominance.
Some of the nations attending the meeting in western Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk region, such as Poland and Romania, have been staunch supporters of Ukraine.
Others, such as Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia, have refused to provide Ukraine with direct military assistance.
Mr Zelensky wrote on Telegram that the summit was a "significant beginning" of a movement intended to "further strengthen ties between our countries and create another strong element of co-operation at the EU level".
He added that the participating countries would work together on security, energy, logistics, cross-border economic ties and support for local communities.
The meeting in the western Ukrainian ski resort of Bukovel came amid increasing concern among many European countries that Russia is ramping up hybrid threats including sabotage, cyberattacks, disinformation and potential drone incursions into Nato territory.
Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, warned before departing for Ukraine that Moscow is planning hybrid strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Kyiv, among them Poland.
Officials in Poland, Germany and Denmark have in recent weeks accused Russia of involvement in drone incursions, sabotage, arson, surveillance of defence facilities and planning to use a drone carrying explosives to attack an airport.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the EU needs a Nato-like mechanism to better respond to hybrid attacks blamed on Russia, and to develop "a consensus on how to respond to certain incidents- that fall below armed aggression but clearly threaten our national security".
Following a phone call with Ms von der Leyen, Mr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that Ukraine has received a €3.3 billion tranche from an EU financial support package meant to strengthen Ukraine's defence capabilities including the purchase of missiles and drones.
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was also preparing for a meeting with Ms von der Leyen at the United Nations General Assembly in New York week focused on the country's financial stability.
Two people were killed and two others injured in Russian strikes overnight in the region of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said in a statement on Telegram.
The strikes sparked fires in warehouse and production buildings.
Rescuers were forced to retreat during repeated air raid alerts. Firefighters later extinguished the blazes.
Elsewhere, one person was killed and six others injured after Russian forces attacked an electric train in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, the state emergency service said. The drone strike targeted a railway station in the Novovodolazka community and sparked a fire in two carriages of the suburban train.
Watch: Large blaze at market in Ukraine following Russian attack
Another Russian drone attack destroyed a shopping complex in Zaporizhzhia, injuring one person and triggering a fire, the service said.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defences intercepted and destroyed 629 Ukrainian drones overnight over 14 Russian regions, as well as illegally annexed Crimea and the Azov and the Black seas.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 350 drones were headed towards Moscow, but that most were destroyed far from the Russian capital while 64 were downed as they approached the city.
In the southern region of Rostov near the border with Ukraine, houses and residential buildings were damaged in an attack, local authorities said. There were no casualties, according to Rostov governor Yuri Slyusar.
The Russian military said it carried out drone strikes overnight on Ukraine's ports, vessels and a logistics centre operating for the military.
Russian forces hit a bulk carrier in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk and a Nova Poshta logistics facility, 3.7 miles north-west of Odesa, that the Russian Defence Ministry said was used for storing and distributing military cargo from Europe.
Russia seizes assets of Nestle, French firms over West's Ukraine support
Russian authorities have seized the businesses and assets of Swiss food giant Nestle and three French groups, a move the Kremlin defended today as a justified measure against firms representing "unfriendly countries" that back Ukraine.
A decree signed by President Putin transferred the Russian operations of Nestle, French retailer Auchan and the former Leroy Merlin DIY chain, now known as Lemana Pro, to a company called LEV Management.
The decree, issued late yesterday, also covers the Russian subsidiaries of French logistics group FM Logistic.
Investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that LEV Management was created only at the end of 2025, and is headed by a Russian interior ministry general. It had no known business activity.
It was the latest move by Russia against Western firms in response to a barrage of sanctions over its war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
Most Western companies quickly sold their Russian operations and holdings after the Ukraine invasion, or at least isolated them, as sanctions have made trading in most goods difficult.
Others remained, citing concerns for their employees or citizen's well-being, but often sharply scaling back their operations.
Russia has since made it difficult for firms to leave, requiring presidential authorisation for deals, or seizing the assets outright.
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