Polish airspace breached during huge Russian strikes on Ukraine

Russia launched a massive wave of missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, yesterday in one of the biggest attacks on the country since the start of the war.

- Pjotr Sauer Artem Mazhulin

Poland's armed forces also said an unknown airborne object, which they identified as a Russian missile, entered its airspace from the direction of Ukraine for three minutes.

"Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland's airspace. It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace," said Poland's defence chief, Gen Wiesław Kukuła.

Poland said the object penetrated about 24 miles and left after less than three minutes, adding that its radar and Nato radar both confirmed the object left Polish airspace.

In Ukraine, at least 30 civilians were killed and 132 injured in Russia's strikes on residential buildings in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and other cities in the west and south. Ukrainian officials said a shopping centre and maternity hospital were hit in the central city of Dnipro.

In Odesa, three people were killed and a further 26 injured, including two children and a pregnant woman, when three rockets hit residential buildings.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia had launched approximately 110 missiles in the attack.

"Today, Russia used nearly every type of weapon in its arsenal," Zelenskiy said in a statement on his social media channels.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia used hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles, including missiles that were extremely hard to intercept.

The Ukrainian commander-inchief, Valeriy Zaluzhny, said that of the 158 missiles and drones launched by Russia, 87 cruise missiles and 27 attack drones were intercepted. None of the 20 or so ballistic missiles appears to have been shot down.