Ukrainian authorities reported early Sunday that Russia launched nearly 30 missiles into Ukrainian territory, with about ten strikes aimed at the capital, Kyiv. Nearby Poland raised its air alert after confirming that one of the projectiles briefly crossed its airspace for 39 seconds.
Air defenses in Ukraine were activated around 04:10 local time as the initial wave of Russia’s assault began, according to the Ukrainian armed forces. The attack was carried out with 29 cruise missiles released from 14 strategic Tu-95MS bombers and 28 attack drones of the Shahed type.
A dozen cruise missiles, including models X-101, X-555, and X-55, targeted Kyiv in what was the second large bombardment of the city in less than four days. Authorities reported no confirmed casualties so far, but there was material damage in the city center and in the Desnianskyi district.
Vitali Klitschko, the Kyiv mayor, wrote on Telegram: “Explosions in the capital. The air defense is operating. Do not leave shelters.”
The governor of Lviv region, Maksim Kozitski, noted that the Striy district, south of Lviv near the Polish border, also came under attack.
Ukraine’s authorities also reported drone assaults on Krivyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where heating networks and power lines were damaged by falling debris. As a result, several boiler plants in the city were out of service. Six hospitals, 150 schools, and about 3,000 homes lost heating, according to administrator Serhi Lisak.
The air alert was canceled at 06:08 local time.
The Russian Defense Ministry described the operation as a “night attack with precision weapons” aimed at “electric power facilities, gas production sites, and places where unmanned vessel assembly and testing occur.”
Interfax quoted a Russian ministry statement saying the strike disrupted industrial companies that produced and repaired weapons and military equipment, and destroyed several foreign-made systems supplied to Ukraine by NATO countries.
In Poland, Defense Minister Wladislaw Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed that a Russian missile briefly entered Polish airspace for 39 seconds, prompting a high-level security briefing by the country’s leadership consisting of the president, prime minister, foreign minister, and the army chief of staff.
According to the Polish army, the object entered airspace near the city of Oserdow in the Lubelskie region and remained there for 39 seconds, as stated by the army in an official communiqué. Allied representatives also received information about another incident where NATO borders were reportedly breached by Russian combat forces. Poland’s National Security Council later announced that the foreign minister would summon the Russian ambassador to explain the violation and that Poland would decide its next steps based on that briefing.
Polish authorities also reminded the public that border incidents with Russia are not unfamiliar—Poland previously detected a violation of its airspace by a Russian missile at the end of December, and a November 2022 incident near the Polish-Ukrainian border resulted in civilian casualties. Western officials initially believed the late-2022 strike was the work of an air defense missile accidentally fired by Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, local authorities reported one death and four injuries from a Ukrainian attack overnight. A 65-year-old resident died when a fragment from a rocket damaged a home in the Yaltinskaya area, and four others were wounded by shrapnel, according to governor Mikhail Razvozhaev, who shared the details on his Telegram channel.
There were also reports of a rocket hitting a private residence along the Simferopol highway corridor, though it did not detonate, Razvozhaev added. Ukrainian defense forces confirmed an attack on Sevastopol that targeted several military assets, including two ships, the Yamal and the Azov, a communications center, and various Black Sea Fleet infrastructure facilities in the city, per the Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Ukrainian forces claimed successful strikes against large Russian landing ships Yamal and Azov, among other targets in Sevastopol, which Russia has not publicly commented on.
To conclude, Russian authorities reported two injuries in the Belgorod region near Ukraine’s border amid a Ukrainian air assault. Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said roughly ten aerial targets were brought down by Belgorod’s air defense system.
In summary, the day’s events reflected a broad escalation, with cross-border incidents affecting Ukraine and neighboring NATO members, and ongoing exchanges of claims about responsibility and damage on both sides. The situation remained fluid as officials from multiple countries gathered intelligence and evaluated further responses.