Russian invasion of Ukraine kills several; possible crash of Russian missiles in Poland

Kyiv, Ukraine – A Russian missile and drone attack in Ukraine on Thursday night killed at least eight civilians, including children, and wounded scores of others, officials said.

The blitz has increased Russia’s almost daily bombing of Ukrainian cities as Moscow apparently looks to exploit Kyiv’s critical lack of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defense.

NATO member Poland, meanwhile, was looking into Ukrainian reports that a Russian cruise missile had entered its territory during the attack.

The hacks have extended into regions in Ukraine, including areas bordering Poland far from the country’s eastern border and where Ukraine is believed to be storing and producing weapons against Russia that are more than 4 years old. Its long-range drones and missiles have attacked Russia’s oil sector, causing a fuel crisis there.

This attack happened two days after the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Washington with President Trump and representatives of American defense companies, as he called for a faster and larger delivery of Patriot air defense systems that are the best way to stop a Russian ballistic attack.

The Iran war destroyed a number of American-made interceptors. Trump has promised to give licenses to Ukraine to build its Patriots, but production could take a long time to establish.

“Given the severe shortage of anti-aircraft missiles from our partners, our heroes are doing really amazing things, showing the highest level of technology,” Zelenskyy said on social media.

“This Russian terrorist proved once again that preventing the threat of Russian missiles is a very important task when it comes to saving the lives of our people,” he said.

Zelenskyy said that at least 10 regions of Ukraine were attacked, many houses, businesses and infrastructure buildings were destroyed.

Russia has launched more than 70 missiles, the majority of which are ballistic, he said, and more than 280 attack drones, more than 260 of which have been intercepted.

Polish airspace violated by a Russian missile?

A Russian Kh-101 missile fell into Poland overnight, violating NATO airspace, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told X.

Sybiha clearly called that strengthening the air defense of Ukraine is urgent and serves as a guarantee of the wider protection of Europe.

Polish authorities did not immediately confirm Sybiha’s comments.

But the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said that in X an unidentified object flying west during the night was tracked in Polish airspace and an F-16 fighter jet was launched to identify and intercept it.

The object disappeared from radar screens before it was identified, the command said. The helicopter flew to its last known location, where crews found a potential impact site in an undeveloped area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in Lublin province, the command wrote.

Polish authorities have not confirmed what, if anything, crashed. Prime Minister Donald Tusk went to the site on Thursday morning to inspect the site. Later, he said it appeared that the object was a Russian missile, Reuters reported.

“All indications are that it was a Russian Kh-101 missile, but we want to be 100% sure of the type of missile and who launched it,” Reuters quoted Tusk as telling the emergency meeting. “There is no direct threat because the missile landed in an uninhabited area; we were ready to shoot it down if it had continued to fly.”

Details on Russian strikes in Ukraine

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it was targeting Ukrainian air bases, weapons factories and telecommunications facilities as well as military facilities.

Targets included drone manufacturing factories and warehouses, a missile factory, an aircraft repair facility, an electronics manufacturing plant, and a chemical plant, it said.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russian attack killed six people and wounded 10, said Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the military administration in the region.

Children were among the dead, he told Telegram – a 6-year-old girl and boys aged 11 and 17.

The children’s parents died in the same incident, but two other children were pulled out alive from under the rubble, Zelenskyy said.
“It was a normal home, blown up (by a ballistic missile),” he told X.

Russian troops attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with missiles, killing a 31-year-old man and wounding two others, the National Police press service said. Residential buildings, a market, a garage cooperative, storage facilities and vehicles in the city were destroyed, police said.

A cruise missile attack hit the city west of Lviv, injuring 34 people, including three children aged 6, 13 and 15, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, head of military administration in the Lviv region. Emergency crews were still searching through the debris.

In the Poltava region, a drone crashed into a company warehouse, killing one person, regional military chief Vitalii Diakivnych said.

Ukraine retaliated, Russian officials said

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 258 Ukrainian planes overnight.

A depot of online retailer Wildberries has been set on fire in the Russian suburb of Penza, southeast of Moscow, in the latest strike at the company’s warehouses, Penza Gov. Oleg Melnichenko.

One person was injured and 200 workers were evacuated, he said.

Wildberries also reported that its warehouse in Sarapul in the Udmurtia region, more than 600 miles from Ukraine, was hit by a Ukrainian jet and set on fire. It said the workers were evacuated safely.

Ukraine accuses Wildberries of supplying goods that could be used by the Russian military.