NATO scrambles jets as Russia launches more than 500 drones, missiles at Ukraine

LONDON -- Russia launched more than 500 drones and missiles into Ukraine overnight into Wednesday morning, according to Ukraine's air force, with explosions reported across the west of the country and NATO aircraft scrambling across the border in Poland.

Russia launched 502 attack and decoy drones plus 24 missiles in the latest overnight barrage, Ukraine's air force said in a Telegram post. Defending forces downed or suppressed 430 drones and 21 missiles, the air force said.

Impacts of 69 drones and three missiles were recorded across 14 locations, the air force said, with falling debris of downed munitions reported at 14 locations.

The barrage appeared to target several Ukrainian regions, with local authorities reporting explosions in the western regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk. Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv's city administration, said that at least one drone crashed in the capital.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said 15 Russian drones attacked the city, which sits around 40 miles from the Polish border. A warehouse was "partially destroyed," Sadovyi said, with no casualties reported.

In Lutsk, Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said drones caused damage to "civilian infrastructure."

Svitlana Onyshchuk, the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk military administration, said attacks caused a fire at an industrial site prompting the deployment of 130 emergency personnel. Onyshchuk reported no casualties from the strike.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that the "massive attack" targeted "civilian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities, a transportation hub, even a garage cooperative, and, as has already become routine for the Russians, residential areas."

"These are clearly demonstrative Russian strikes," he added. Russian President Vladimir Putin "is showing his impunity," Zelenskyy wrote, adding, "It is only due to the lack of sufficient pressure, primarily on Russia’s war economy, that this aggression continues."

Across the border in Poland, NATO aircraft took to the air amid the attack.

The Polish Armed Forces Operational Command said in a post to X that aircraft were deployed in response to Russian "strikes on facilities located on the territory of Ukraine."

"In our airspace, Polish and allied aircraft are operating intensively, while ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached a state of maximum readiness," the statement read.

NATO forces in Poland returned to a normal level of readiness after around four hours with the conclusion of the Russian strikes, the command said in a follow-up post.

Russia is continuing its nightly barrages of Ukraine despite U.S.-led peace efforts -- and regardless of U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated admonitions of Putin over the long-range attacks.

Though August saw an easing of Russian attacks when compared with a record-breaking July, the two weeks after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska saw a notable rise in the scale of Russian strikes all across Ukraine.

There were several high casualty events during the month, perhaps most notably the drone and missile barrage on Kyiv that killed at least 23 people on the night of Aug. 27-28.

Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to Telegram on Tuesday said the ongoing attacks show an "open disregard by Russia for everything the world is doing to stop this war."

Ukraine is continuing its own long-range strike campaign deep into Russia.

On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces shot down at least 105 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Zelenskyy said on Monday that Kyiv intends to expand such attacks, which Ukrainian officials and commanders have framed as a means to undermine Moscow's war effort and force the Kremlin into genuine negotiations.

"We are preparing a technological headquarters involving manufacturers of Ukrainian missiles, key types of drones and air defense tools," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. "We will increase the production of our strike means."