Russian strikes involving “hundreds” of drones and missiles have killed at least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, and wounded at least 10 people in Ukraine on Sunday, as Poland scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace.
An air raid alert was in place over the Kyiv region, with the local military administration saying Russia was attacking with drones and missiles.
“Russia launched another massive air attack on Ukrainian cities while people were sleeping,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on X.
“Again, hundreds of drones and missiles, destroying residential buildings and causing civilian casualties.”
He posted footage of flames bursting from the windows of a multi-storey apartment block, which Sybiga said was a result of the attack.
Timur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration, had said early reports pointed to “three fatalities”, “including a 12-year-old girl killed by Russians”.
Tkachenko then swiftly revised the toll upwards to four, as a “body of the deceased has been found”.
Some residents fled to metro stations deep underground for safety. Many regions across the country were under air raid alerts.
The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the Ukrainian capital was under a “massive” assault and urged people to stay in shelters.
He said at least six people had been wounded “as a result of the enemy’s attack”, five of whom were treated in hospital and one at the scene.
The governor of the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region said Russian strikes there had wounded at least four people.
“Once again, residential buildings and infrastructure are being hit. Once again, it is a war against civilians,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said.
“There will be a response to these actions. But the west’s economic blows against Russia must also be stronger.”
Poland’s military said on X it had scrambled fighter jets in its airspace and put ground-based air defence systems on high alert in response to the Russian strikes in Ukraine.
The moves were preventive and aimed at securing Polish airspace and protecting citizens, especially in areas adjacent to Ukraine, the military said.
Poland also closed the airspace near its south-eastern cities of Lublin and Rzeszow until at least 0400 GMT on Sunday.
Speaking in Kyiv after his meeting with Donald Trump at the UN in New York, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia was preparing for a bigger conflict.
“Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine. He will open up some other direction. Nobody knows where. He wants that,” he said.
Ukraine’s president said the Kremlin was deliberately checking Europe’s capacity to protect its skies, after drone sightings in Denmark, Poland and Romania and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets. More drones were spotted on Friday night above a Danish military base, and over a Norwegian base on Saturday.
Zelenskyy suggested EU governments were struggling to deal with this new and dangerous threat. Earlier this month, Ukraine spotted 92 drones flying towards Poland in a “choreographed” way. It intercepted most of them. Nineteen crossed into Polish territory, where the Poles shot four down.
Russia has denied that it is responsible for the incursions or that it plans to attack any Nato nation.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told the UN general assembly “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response”.
Speaking later to reporters, Lavrov said that if any country downs objects still within Russian airspace, “they will very much regret it”.
