At least eight people, including two children, were killed and several others injured in a wave of Russian missile and drone strikes across Ukraine on Thursday, prompting neighbouring Poland to scramble fighter jets to safeguard its airspace.
The attacks targeted multiple regions, stretching from the capital Kyiv to the western city of Lviv near the Polish border. Air raid sirens sounded across most of Ukraine as explosions were reported in several cities.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strikes triggered fires at multiple non-residential sites in the capital. Emergency services confirmed that one person was killed and two others were injured in Kyiv.
The heaviest casualties were reported from the Dnipropetrovsk region, where six people, including two girls aged five and 12, lost their lives.
In Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, eight people were injured.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defence council, said a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile struck the home of a large family. According to him, the missile was launched from Russia’s Voronezh region, and rescue operations were continuing amid fears that the death toll could increase.
Local authorities also confirmed one fatality in the Poltava region.
Lviv Hit Near Polish Border
In the western city of Lviv, Russian missiles damaged two residential apartment buildings and injured 26 people.
Emergency teams continued search-and-rescue operations amid concerns that more residents could be trapped beneath the debris.
The strikes came shortly after President Zelenskyy returned from the United States, where he said US President Donald Trump had agreed to provide Ukraine with licences for Patriot air defence missile systems.
Before the attacks, Zelenskyy had warned that Russia was preparing a large-scale offensive and stressed that Ukraine’s ability to protect civilians depended on additional air defence support from its allies.
He urged partner nations to strengthen Ukraine’s missile defence capabilities, saying civilian safety was directly linked to international military assistance.
Russia Claims Military Targets
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had targeted military facilities in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and other Ukrainian regions.
The ministry also claimed that three cargo ships had been struck during the operation.
Poland Activates Air Defence
As the Russian strikes unfolded near its border, Poland, a NATO and European Union member, scrambled fighter aircraft as a precautionary measure, according to the Polish Armed Forces.
Separately, police in Poland’s Lublin region said residents in Bilgoraj County reported hearing a loud explosion.
Officers later discovered a crater and debris from an unidentified object in a field. Authorities are investigating the incident.
Ukrainian Drones Strike Inside Russia
Meanwhile, Ukraine continued drone operations targeting infrastructure inside Russia.
A warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, caught fire after a drone strike in the western city of Penza, regional governor Oleg Melnichenko said.
One person was injured and around 200 people were evacuated from the facility.
Wildberries also confirmed that another warehouse in Sarapul, in Russia’s Udmurtia region, caught fire following a drone attack.
According to reports, nearly a dozen Wildberries warehouses have been damaged in recent Ukrainian drone strikes, destroying about 10 per cent of the company’s storage capacity and disrupting operations for thousands of small businesses that rely on the platform.
Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, has warned that it may need to increase provisions for potential loan losses as repeated attacks continue to affect online retailers and suppliers.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defence systems intercepted 258 Ukrainian drones overnight, including those shot down over Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
