Russia-Ukraine war: Poland says ‘everything indicates’ a Russian missile briefly entered its airspace on Friday morning – as it happened (2024)

The time is just after 6pm in Kyiv and we are now closing the blog. Here is a summary of events.

• Poland’s defence forces said an unknown object entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile. There was no comment from Russian officials.

• 18 Ukrainian civilians are known to have died, and another 132 are injured, following a wave of Russian missile attacks. Rescue operations are still ongoing in the cities. In total, the Russian Federation launched 158 aerial targets over Ukraine – air defence forces shot down 27 drones and 87 cruise missiles.

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• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Kremlin’s forces used a wide variety of weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles. He posted on X saying that “Russian terror must and will lose” following a night of missile strikes.

• Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said Russia “apparently launched everything they have” against targets across Ukraine.

• The British prime minister has posted his support for Ukraine on social media following the wave of Russian missile strikes overnight. Rishi Sunak said: “These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy.”

• Ukrainian officials have urged the country’s western allies to provide it with more air defences to protect itself against aerial attacks like Friday’s one. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.

• Russia has suffered huge human and material losses in Ukraine and its army will emerge weakened from the conflict, a senior German military figure said in an interview published on Friday. He said: “The Russian armed forces will emerge from this war weakened, both materially and in terms of personnel.”

Poland’s defence forces said an unknown object entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile, AP reports.

It was not immediately clear where the object disappeared from radar or in which direction it had been going. Troops were mobilised to identify and find it. There were no immediate reports of any explosion or casualties.

Poland’s defence chief, Gen Wiesław Kukuła said:

Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland’s airspace. It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace. We have confirmation of this on radars and from allies [in Nato].

Poland’s defence forces said the object penetrated about 40km (24 miles) into its airspace and left it after less than three minutes. The defence forces said both its radar and Nato radar confirmed that the object left Polish airspace.

Kukuła said steps were being taken to verify those findings. There was no comment from Russian officials.

The governor of Lublin province in eastern Poland, Krzysztof Komorski, told the Onet news portal that the object appeared on radars near the town of Hrubieszów, where a border crossing with Ukraine is located. Komorski said he had no information to indicate it landed in Lublin province.

Poland’s border with Ukraine is also the European Union and Nato border with Ukraine.

The prime minister, Donald Tusk, convened a meeting with the defence minister, military commanders and heads of national security bodies, followed by a meeting of the National Security Bureau. Tusk was also in contact with president Andrzej Duda, the supreme commander of Poland’s armed forces.

It was not clear whether the object that Poland reported was related to the barrage of missile attacks on Ukraine overnight.

Speaking on national television about the incident, Yuriy Ihnat, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force, said:

As a result of such massive attacks, this can happen. The enemy is attacking our border territories, including in the west. This is another signal for our partners to strengthen the Ukrainian air defence.

This is not the first time an unauthorised object has entered Poland’s airspace from the direction of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion. In November 2022, two men were killed when a missile struck the village of Przewodów, a few kilometres from the border. Western officials said they believed a Ukrainian air defence missile went astray.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the deadly wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine on Friday and urged Moscow to cease the attacks “immediately”.

“I am shocked by yet another full-scale set of coordinated missile and drone attacks by the Russian Federation across Ukraine during the night,” Türk said in a statement.

“International humanitarian law explicitly prohibits attacks deliberately targeting civilian objects, as well as indiscriminate attacks, under any circ*mstances.

“I call again on the Russian Federation to cease its attacks on Ukraine immediately, and to strictly respect all the rules of international law relating to the conduct of hostilities.”

An air raid alert has been issued across Ukraine on Friday afternoon as the Ukrainian air force says there is a threat of cruise missiles being launched.

In a post on Telegram, the air force also said missiles were fired from Kursk in Russia towards the Cherkasy region in central Ukraine.

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, has also posted on Telegram asking residents in the capital to head for shelter.

It has just gone 3pm in Ukraine. Here are the latest updates from the missile attack overnight.

• Currently, 18 civilians are known to have died, and another 132 are injured, the National Police reported. Rescue operations are still ongoing in the cities. In total, the Russian Federation launched 158 aerial targets over Ukraine – air defence forces shot down 27 drones and 87 cruise missiles, Suspilne News reports.

• In Kyiv, fragments of intercepted rockets fell in the Shevchenkivsky, Podilsky, Svyatoshynsky and Darnytsky districts. Three people died, 28 were injured. Residential buildings, cars were damaged, fires broke out in warehouses and construction sites.

• In Dnipro – six people died, 28 were injured, including a one and a half year old child. The rocket hit the shopping centre, residential buildings were damaged by debris. One of the sections of the maternity hospital was damaged – no one was injured there, patients and medical personnel managed to take shelter, the health ministry reported.

• The Russian Federation launched10 missile strikes at Zaporizhzhia – five people were killed and 12 were injured. Two private houses were completely destroyed, windows were broken in 19 high-rise buildings, educational institutions and a hospital. Garages, a gas station and a hotel building were also damaged.

• Odesa was attacked by drones and rockets at night and in the morning: three people were killed, another 26 were injured, including two children, a pregnant woman and five law enforcement officers. Three rockets hit residential buildings in Odessa. Several dozen buildings were damaged by debris.

• In Kharkiv, as a result of Russian missile attacks, three people were also killed and 13 were injured. The regional oncology centre was damaged, as well as warehouses, a transport depot and enterprises.

• In Lviv, one person died and another 24 were injured due to a missile attack by the Russian Federation. There are partial destructions in 13 high-rise buildings and educational institutions. Damaged cars.

• In Konotop, Sumy oblast, there were five hits: three people were injured, about ten houses were damaged, a service station, and a car burned. Several boiler houses were also damaged, street lighting malfunctioned.

Denise Brown, the United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, issued a statement condemning “in the strongest terms” Russia’s “heinous wave of attacks on populated areas of Ukraine over the past few hours, which has left a path of destruction, death and human suffering”.

Brown said the strikes had damaged homes, schools, hospitals, a shopping mall, a metro station and energy infrastructure, killing and injuring civilians “in almost every region of the country”.

She continued:

Right now, families and emergency services are trying to pull people out of the debris left by the destruction.

For the Ukrainian people, this is another unacceptable example of the horrifying reality they are faced with, and which made 2023 another year of enormous suffering.

The death toll from Russia’s missile attack on Ukraine has risen to 18, according to Ukrainian police.

As of 1pm local time, 18 civilians had been killed and 132 wounded in the Russian strikes, the national police said in a statement on Telegram, in what the Ukrainian air force described as “the most massive aerial attack” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

An unknown airborne object entered Poland’s airspace from the direction of Ukraine and subsequently vanished off radars, Poland’s armed forces said on Friday.

The Operational Command of the Armed Forces said on the social media platform X that the unidentified airborne object entered from the side of the border with Ukraine and was observed by radars of the country’s air defence system from the moment it crossed the border until the signal disappeared, AP reports.

It also said troops have been mobilised to identify and find the object.

Local authorities said that the object crossed the border near the town of Hrubieszów.

There were no immediate reports of any explosion or casualties.

The British prime minister has posted his support for Ukraine on social media following the wave of Russian missile strikes overnight.

Rishi Sunak said: “These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy.”