NATO aircraft scrambled amid “intense” Russian missile strikes

Poland scrambled its fighter jets to protect its air space during a Russian missile bombardment that covered all of Ukraine overnight.

Since February, the NATO member, which has been a key ally for Kyiv for both equipment and training, has regularly deployed its aircraft as a security measure as Moscow stepped up its missile strikes on Ukraine.

On Friday night, the Operational Command of Poland’s Armed Forces said it had responded to “intense long-range aviation activity” by Russia to “ensure the safety of Polish airspace,” warning of increased noise levels in the southeast of the country.

A statement three hours later said that the operation had ended following a “long busy night for the entire air defense system in Poland.”

“A massive long-range missile attack by the Russian Federation covered the entire territory of Ukraine, including the regions bordering Poland,” the statement on X said, according to a translation. “The strikes were carried out using cruise missiles, Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missiles launched from the Black Sea region.”

Iran has supplied Shahed drones to Russia, which have caused havoc on civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force said its air defenses had shot down 35 out of 53 missiles and 46 of the 47 attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The Russian attacks also consisted of 35 Kh-101/555 cruise missiles launched from Tupolev Tu-95 bomber planes over the Caspian Sea, four Iskander-M ballistic missiles and one Iskander-K cruise missile from Crimea.

Russian forces also launched 10 Kalibr cruise missiles from the northeastern Black Sea, three Kh-59/69 guided air-launched missiles from occupied territories in the Zaporizhzhia region, and 47 Shahed-type drones from the Russian town of Primorsko-Akhtarsk, the air force said.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Saturday that energy infrastructure in the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, and Ivano-Frankivsk had been attacked. Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK said there had been “serious damage” to two of its thermal power plants.

An air alert was sounded throughout Ukraine, including its western regions bordering Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, amid the threat of Russian cruise and ballistic missiles, drones, and Tu-95MS bombers, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

The Russian aerial assault comes days after a bombing of a supermarket in the eastern city of Kharkiv on May 25 which killed at least 19 people and injured 44, adding to the debate about whether Ukraine could use Western-supplied weapons to hit Russian territory, which the U.S. had been reluctant to allow but has now green-lit.