Ukrainian firefighters work at the scene of a Russian strike on Wednesday in the Khmelnytskyi region of Ukraine. Photo courtesy of State Emergency Service/EPA
At least one person was killed, five people were injured and tens of thousands were left without power after Russia unleashed a major airborne assault overnight against central and western Ukraine, officials said.
Russian forces launched more than 500 drones and 24 cruise missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said, with the heaviest damage in Khmelnytskyi province, 180 miles southwest of Kyiv, where a civilian in their 40s was killed, and in neighboring Kirovohrad province, where five people were injured in Znamianka.
More than two dozen buildings were also destroyed in the attack on the city.
More than 400 drones and all but three of the missiles were downed or jammed by Ukrainian Air Defenses, but 14 sites were struck and another 14 were hit by debris from missiles and drones destroyed in the air.
Blasts were also reported in Kyiv and the western cities of Lutsk, Kalush and Rivne.
Attacks on energy infrastructure in Chernihiv province knocked out power to more than 30,000 homes, Gov. Viacheslav Chaus said, while state-run Ukrainian Railways reported damage to rail infrastructure in Kirovohrad caused long delays on the network of up to seven hours.
More than 130 firefighters tackled a blaze in Ivano-Frankivsk at an industrial facility.
Air raid warning sirens were active in the majority of Ukraine’s 24 regions, with the proximity of some of the attacks to the border with Poland prompting NATO partners to scramble fighter jets.
The Polish Armed Forces Operational Command said in a statement that its air force carried out an intensive operation that lasted for around four hours, backed by ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems.
It said that F-35s from the Netherlands assisted in defending and securing Polish airspace, but stressed that the operation took place “in our airspace.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to social media to condemn the strikes and call for more coordinated international action to deter Russia from its nightly attacks, which, following a quieter first half of August, have escalated again in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 15.
“These are clearly demonstrative Russian strikes. Putin is showing his impunity. And this undoubtedly requires a response from the world. It is only due to the lack of sufficient pressure, primarily on Russia’s war economy, that this aggression continues,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
Zelensky said he would be holding talks with partners in the coming days on the need to ramp up that pressure beginning in Denmark later Wednesday, where he will join a summit of the so-called Nordic-Baltic Eight before going to Paris for a wider European summit on Thursday hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We are also preparing a format of the Coalition of the Willing and new steps in relations with the European Union and the United States. I thank everyone who is helping. Every Russian strike must be met with a real response,” said Zelensky.
