Poland on Alert after Russia Bombs Civilian Blocks in Kyiv

Poland was forced to scramble at least three F-16s today as Russia fired missiles towards its NATO border with Ukraine, say reports.

In the event the missiles turned away from the NATO country and hit targets across Ukraine as part of a massive new onslaught unleashed by Russia.

Deeply distressing footage from Kyiv showed residential blocks ablaze.

Among the Russian targets was reported to be a Ukrainian marine drone plant in Mykolaiv, and barrages of attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv.

As buildings burned in Ukraine, the deep threat of a wider war involving NATO – which counts the UK and US as members – was highlighted by the Polish alert early today as Russian missiles appeared to be heading over Ukraine towards Poland.

An attack on a NATO country could trigger the military alliance’s Article 5, which states that if a NATO ally is the victim of an armed assault, other members of the Alliance will consider this an act of aggression against all members.

Poland was struck by a missile in November 2022, near the border with Ukraine, killing two people. Initial reports suggested that it was a Russian missile, raising fears that it could spark a wider conflict, but it was later reported by Poland and the United States that the missile was likely a misfiring Ukrainian air defence missile.

Following the Russian attacks overnight, operational Command of the Armed Forces of Poland stated: ‘Intensive long-range aviation activity of the Russian Federation is being observed due to missile strikes on Ukrainian territory.

‘All necessary procedures aimed at ensuring the safety of Polish airspace have been launched,’ it said, adding that Poland was ‘constantly monitoring the situation’.

‘We warn you that Polish and allied aircraft have been activated, which may cause increased noise levels, especially in the southeast area of the country.’

Reports from Ukraine said Poland had put three F-16s in the air to counter the possible Russian threat. It is unclear which NATO warplanes were activated.

Russia launched several waves of missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during Wednesday morning rush hour, with falling debris from the downed weapons cutting off electricity to parts of the capital.

All of Ukraine was under air raid alert from around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT), with Ukraine’s Air Force warning on Telegram of a risk of Russian missile attacks across the country.

The first blasts were heard just before 7 am in Kyiv.

Several waves of blasts rocked Kyiv during the attack, the first so far in February, with air defence systems engaged in destroying the missiles, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.

But smoke was seen rising from Kyiv as five explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital after a nationwide air raid alert in Ukraine. At least two people were injured in Dniprovskyi district that lies along the Dnipro River, Klitschko added.

‘Explosions in the city. Air defence is working. Stay in shelters!’ wrote the Kyiv mayor.

‘An apartment building caught fire in Holosiivsky district. Firefighters and rescue unit are on its way to the scene,’ he said.

‘And in the Dnipro district of the capital, there are currently two injured people. Both were treated by medics on the spot.’

A car repair shop was also hit.

‘I was scared when air alerts announced and we rushed here,’ Tetyana, 49, told Reuters news agency in a bomb shelter in central Kyiv, wile hugging her two-year-old granddaughter and a small dog.

‘I hope they will shoot down all of them. I pray for our air defence.’

Second city Kharkiv was hit by at least four explosions.

‘We have information about non-residential area being hit. As for the injured, clarification is underway.’ wrote Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov.

US ambassador to Kyiv Bridget A Brink said: ‘Now in Kyiv & around the country, men, women, and children awoke to another massive Russian missile and drone attack.

‘We rely on Ukraine’s air defence – and its heroic air defenders – to protect us all. There is no time to lose. Ukraine needs our security assistance now.’

Russia claimed the strikes on residential buildings were due to Ukrainian air defences.

One person was killed in Mykolaiv, a pensioner.

At least ten people were reported wounded, nine in Kyiv and one in Kharkiv.

Some 20,000 people were left without electricity in Kyiv.

Ukrainian air defence forces over Kyiv and the surrounding area destroyed about two dozen Russian missiles.

‘Air defence forces shot down about two dozen Kh-101/Kh-555/KX-55 cruise missiles over Kyiv and in the vicinity of the capital,’ stated Kyiv Regional Administration.

The missiles entered the capital in several waves from different directions, said spokesman Sergei Popko.

Near Kharkiv – resident Olena Kurylo, called the ‘Face of the War’ after her bloody image was flashed around the world at the start of the conflict in February 2022 – said she was cowering in her bathroom as missiles exploded nearby.

‘My phone is exploding with new missile alerts,’ she said.

‘I can see reports about five mighty explosions in Kharkiv pinging one after another.

‘My mind is numb with fear for my daughter and everyone in the city.

‘I am trying to stay calm; then another missile rushes right close to us, and I hear the whistle of death right close.

‘There are no words to describe what you feel then, just the whole body starts shaking.

‘This is the state I am in, messaging you with my shaky fingers, not knowing if this might be my last message.’

Missiles also hit Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk and other regions in one of the worst onslaughts of the war.

In Mykolaiv, reports said the Ocean plant, where kamikaze sea drones were reportedly made, was targeted along with a warehouse with ammunition.

Reports said Russia deployed 11 TU-95MS aircraft strategic bombers.

They also used six TU-22M3 aircraft.

The strikes came after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday ordered the creation of a separate branch of Ukraine’s armed forces devoted to drones, weapons he and military officials say are crucial to fighting the war against Russia.

Zelensky signed a decree calling on the government and general staff of the armed forces to ‘work out issues on the creation within the Ukrainian armed forces of a separate force for drone systems’.

‘I have just signed a decree which will launch the creation of a separate branch within our armed forces – a drone systems force,’ Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

‘This is not a question for the future. Rather, it must provide concrete results in the very near future,’ he continued.

‘This year must be decisive in a great many aspects. And clearly on the battlefield. Drone systems have shown their effectiveness on land, in the skies and on the seas.’

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister for Digital Transformation, said the separate branch would provide ‘a powerful impetus’ to the military’s technological development.

In the past year, he said, drones had ‘fundamentally changed the situation on the battlefield. They are effective in stopping Russian attacks and back up counterattacks by Ukraine’s armed forces.’

According to Zelensky’s decree, the results of the study would be submitted to the policy-making National Security and Defence Council.

Zelensky has pointed to drones, and production domestically and with partner nations, as a key element in conducting the war against Russia since Moscow’s invasion two years ago this month.

In December, the president pledged that Ukraine would produce a million drones in 2024.

Government officials have said that Ukraine aims to produce tens of thousands of drones every month.

No figures on current production are available, but since the start of the war, drone production has shot up, with dozens of companies developing and producing different models.

The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, whose position is in question in view of differences with the president, said in a comment for CNN last week that drones were critical for the conduct of the war.

‘Crucially, it is these unmanned systems – such as drones – along with other types of advanced weapons, that provide the best way for Ukraine to avoid being drawn into a positional war, where we do not possess the advantage,’ Zaluzhnyi wrote.

The waves of strikes also followed confirmation that Vladimir Putin had given an interview to controversial former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an evidently attempt by the Kremlin dictator to justify himself to Western audiences.

Ukrainian journalist Denys Kazanskiy posted: ‘Putin decided to please Tucker Carlson, who came to visit him, and in the morning attacked peaceful neighbourhoods of Ukrainian cities with rockets….

‘Everything is the same with non-humans – they hit anywhere with their ‘highly precise’ weapons, just for cannibalistic pleasure.’

Carlson, in Moscow, explained his yet to be broadcast interview with Putin by saying: ‘After two years of war, many people do not know what is really happening.

‘And many Americans are paying for it. The war in Ukraine is a disaster.

‘Hundreds of thousands of people are dead, an entire generation of young Ukrainians. But the long-term effects are even greater.

‘World military and trade alliances have changed their face, the economic system and US dominance are falling apart.

‘These changes determine the lives of our grandchildren.

‘But people in English-speaking countries ignore this because their media lies.

‘From the first day of the war, American publications have published many interviews with Ukrainians, with Zelensky, who demands more and more bringing America into the conflict.’

Critics say he has been used by Putin to transmit Kremlin propaganda to the West.

Source