Russia launches major drone, missile attack on Kyiv, other areas

Kyiv is coming under heavy bombardment in what independent monitors say is one of the largest Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital since Moscow launched its full-scale war more than three and a half years ago.

Drones have been flying over the city and surrounding region as anti-aircraft fire rings out through the night and into the morning. Many regions across the country are under air raid alert.

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of the city of Kyiv, says five people have been injured in the Ukrainian capital due to a “massive” assault, urging people to stay in shelters.

The governor of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region says Russian strikes there 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, says.

Poland also closed airspace near its southeastern cities of Lublin and Rzeszow overnight due to “unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security,” flight tracking service Flightradar24 says.

The Polish armed forces says it scrambled aircraft to ensure the security of its airspace after Russia launched strikes on Ukraine.

“In connection with the activity of the Russian Federation’s long-range aviation carrying out strikes on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aircraft have begun operating in our airspace,” the military says in a post on X. It describes the actions as preventive.