Poland to demand Russian explanation over missile incursion during attack on Ukraine
- A Russian cruise missile launched at the Lviv region in western Ukraine violated Poland ’s airspace, officials said. Ukraine said it hit two Russian ships in Crimea
- In Ukraine’s Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovy said about 20 missiles and seven Iranian-made Shahed drones were fired at critical infrastructure in the region
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Russia launched 57 missiles and drones on Ukraine in the early hours, including attacking Kyiv and the western region of Lviv that is near the Polish border.
“On March 24 at 4:23am (0323 GMT), there was a violation of Polish airspace by one of the cruise missiles launched overnight by long-range aviation of the Russian Federation,” the armed forces said on the social media platform X.
“The object entered Polish space near the town of Oserdow (Lublin Voivodeship) and stayed there for 39 seconds. During the entire flight, it was observed by military radar systems.”
Poland will demand an explanation from Moscow over “a new violation of airspace” by the Russian missile, the country’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.
“Above all, we ask the Russian Federation to end its terrorist air strikes against the population and territory of Ukraine, to end the war and to focus on the country’s own internal problems,” ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski added in a statement.
Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed on Sunday to have hit two Russian military ships stationed at the annexed peninsula of Crimea in overnight strikes, as it suffered another night of “massive” Russian aerial attacks.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces successfully struck the amphibious landing ships Yamal and Azov, a communications centre, and a number of the Black Sea Fleet’s infrastructure sites,” the Ukrainian armed forces’ strategic communications centre said.
Moscow-installed officials on the peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, said their forces had repelled a major Ukrainian aerial attack late on Saturday night.
The Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said in a Telegram post that a 65-year-old man was killed and four people injured. He did not mention any damage to Russian war ships.
Footage shared on social media showed a large blast in the city, sending a fireball and plume of black smoke into the air, as well as what appeared to be Russian air defences intercepting incoming projectiles.
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Ukraine has claimed to have destroyed around a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the start of the war, usually in attacks at night using sea-based drones packed with explosives.
Ukraine’s air force said it destroyed 18 out of 29 Russia-launched missiles and 25 out of 28 attack drones. “Explosions in the capital. Air defence is working. Do not leave shelters,” Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.
Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said Stryi district, south of the city of Lviv, near the Polish border, was also attacked.
Ukraine was earlier placed under a nationwide air alert that warned of cruise missiles being launched from Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers. The alert was lifted about two hours later.
Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said the missiles were fired at the capital “in groups” in the third predawn attack in four days.
Preliminary reports suggested there were no casualties or damage, he said, and the city’s air defences had hit “about a dozen” missiles.
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“The enemy continues massive missile terror against Ukraine,” Popko said on Telegram. “It does not give up its goal of destroying Kyiv at any cost.”
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink also noted the increased frequency of recent attacks.
“Russia continues to indiscriminately launch drones and missiles with no regard for millions of civilians, violating international law,” Brink wrote on social media platform X.
In Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovy said about 20 missiles and seven Iranian-made Shahed drones were fired at the region.
“They targeted critical infrastructure facilities,” Sadovy said.
Sadovyi said on Telegram there were no attacks on the city but some 20 missiles and seven attack drones had been launched against the broader Lviv region, targeting “critical infrastructure”.
Russia and Ukraine have increased their air attacks in recent weeks.
Kyiv, which has struggled to find weapons and soldiers after more than two years of war, has promised to retaliate by taking the fighting to Russian soil.
Multiple air attacks on Saturday on the Russian border region of Belgorod adjoining Ukraine killed two people and injured at least seven, the regional governor said.
Further east, a drone attack on the Samara region caused a fire at a major oil refinery, the latest in a series of strikes against Russia’s energy industry.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram that two districts in his region, as well as the regional capital, Belgorod, had been hit in drone and air attacks.
A man was killed when three balconies on an apartment building collapsed, Gladkov said.
Moscow has escalated its own strikes, firing dozens of missiles on Friday and launching dozens of explosive drones to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Russian forces have also taken control of a string of frontline settlements in recent weeks.
Putin has also sought to tie Kyiv to Friday’s Moscow concert hall attack, saying four “perpetrators” were detained while travelling towards Ukraine.
Kyiv has strongly denied any involvement, saying that Russia was looking for excuses to step up the war.
Additional reporting by Reuters
