Russia launched a fresh wave of nationwide missile and drone attacks across Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least eight people, including one in Kyiv, in strikes that reached as far west as the city of Lviv and prompted neighbouring Poland to scramble fighter jets to protect its airspace.
The attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy returned from the United States, where he said President Donald Trump had agreed to provide Ukraine with licences for Patriot missile systems to strengthen the country’s air defence capabilities.
Air raid sirens sounded across most regions of Ukraine as explosions rocked the capital, Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said several non-residential sites caught fire following the strikes.
Ukraine’s emergency services said one person was killed and two others injured in Kyiv, while six more people, including two children, died in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Regional authorities also confirmed one fatality in the central Poltava region.
One of the deadliest attacks occurred in Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, where officials said a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile struck a residential building housing a large family.
Head of the city’s defence council, Oleksandr Vilkul, said two girls aged five and 12 were among the six people killed, while eight others sustained injuries.
Describing the overnight assault, Vilkul said: “A dark night.”
He added that the missile had been launched from Russia’s Voronezh region and directly struck the family’s home.
“The missile struck the home of a large family,” he said, warning that the death toll could still rise as emergency workers continued clearing rubble at the scene.
In the western city of Lviv, near Ukraine’s border with Poland, rescue teams searched through debris after Russian missiles damaged two apartment buildings and injured 26 people, according to local officials.
Ahead of the attacks, Zelenskiy had warned that Russia was preparing another massive aerial assault and appealed to Ukraine’s allies to accelerate deliveries of advanced air defence systems.
“It is important that our partners fully understand what is happening and that the protection of people’s lives depends directly on their willingness,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had targeted what it described as military facilities across Ukraine, including locations in Kyiv, Lviv and the Dnipropetrovsk region. The ministry also claimed its military struck three cargo ships, though it provided no further details.
Meanwhile, Poland, a NATO and European Union member bordering western Ukraine, deployed fighter aircraft to safeguard its airspace as the Russian strikes unfolded.
Polish police in the eastern Lublin region also reported discovering a crater and debris from an unidentified object in a field in Bilgoraj County after residents reported hearing a loud explosion.
The latest escalation also extended into Russia, where Ukrainian drone attacks targeted logistics infrastructure.
Authorities in Russia’s Penza region said a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, the country’s largest online retailer, caught fire following a drone strike.
Regional Governor Oleg Melnichenko said one person was injured and approximately 200 people were evacuated from the facility.
A separate Wildberries warehouse in Sarapul, in Russia’s Udmurtia region, was also set ablaze after another drone attack, the company said.
The repeated strikes have compounded pressure on Russia’s retail and logistics sectors. Wildberries said recent Ukrainian drone attacks have damaged nearly a dozen of its warehouses, destroying roughly 10 per cent of its storage capacity and causing heavy losses for thousands of small businesses that depend on the platform.
Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, has also warned it may need to increase loan-loss provisions as the attacks continue to affect online retailers and their suppliers.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 258 Ukrainian drones overnight, including over Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
Reuters said it could not independently verify the battlefield claims made by either side.
Both Russia and Ukraine continue to deny deliberately targeting civilians during the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Boluwatife Enome
