Russia launches massive overnight strikes on Ukraine, Poland scrambles jets

A building is destroyed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on September 24, 2025. Photo / Getty Images

Ukraine said Sunday that Russia pounded the country with “hundreds” of drones and missiles overnight, wounding at least 10 people, as neighbouring Poland scrambled jets to secure its airspace.

The attacks came after Russia warned Nato against taking sterner action in response to alleged incursions into airspace covered by the military alliance.

They also followed the revelation by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Kyiv had received a US-made Patriot air defence system from Israel for use against Russian assaults.

“Russia launched another massive air attack on Ukrainian cities while people were sleeping,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on X.

“Again, hundreds of drones and missiles, destroying residential buildings and causing civilian casualties,” he said.

He posted footage of flames bursting from the windows of a multi-storey apartment block, which Sybiga said was as a result of the attack.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that the Ukrainian capital was under a “massive” assault and urged people to stay in shelters.

He said at least six people had been wounded “as a result of the enemy’s attack”, five of whom were treated in hospital and one at the scene.

The governor of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said Russian strikes there had wounded at least four people.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, accused Moscow of waging a “war against civilians”.

“There will be a response to these actions. But the West’s economic blows against Russia must also be stronger,” Yermak said.

Poland’s armed forces said on X that they had scrambled fighter jets in its airspace and put ground-based air defence systems on high alert in response to the Russian strikes in Ukraine.

The moves were preventive and aimed at securing Polish airspace and protecting citizens, especially in areas close to Ukraine, the forces said.

‘They will regret it’

In recent weeks, several European countries have accused Russia of violating their airspace with drones and fighter jets, in what Nato has viewed as a test of its resolve.

Russia has denied that it is responsible for the incursions or that it plans to attack any Nato nation.

Speaking during an address at the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday, Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response”.

Speaking later to reporters, Lavrov said that if any country downs objects still within Russian airspace, “they will very much regret it”.

After returning from his own trip to New York, where he also addressed the UN, Zelenskyy told reporters that “the Israeli [Patriot] system is operating in Ukraine”, adding that Kyiv would receive two more this autumn.

While initially neutral in the conflict, Israel’s ties with Moscow have cooled as Russia has drifted closer to Iran and condemned Israel’s war in Gaza.

Kyiv and Moscow also said on Saturday that the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – had been off the grid for four days, stoking fears of a potential nuclear incident.

– Agence France-Presse