Russia Fires 70 Missiles and 280 Drones at Ukraine as Kh-101 Cruise Missile Breaches Poland’s Airspace

Russia launched one of its largest overnight attacks on Ukraine in months on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens more. The barrage struck Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, and several other regions with more than 70 missiles and roughly 280 drones, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. A suspected Russian cruise missile also crossed into Poland during the attack, prompting Warsaw to scramble fighter jets and place its air defenses on high alert.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes hit Kyiv and nine other regions, stretching from Lviv near the Polish border to Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast. Ukraine’s air force said the attack included nine ballistic missiles, and Zelensky said Ukrainian air defense units saved lives despite what he called a critical shortage of air-defense supplies from allies.

Russia’s Massive Overnight Barrage Hits Kyiv and Lviv

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired more than 70 missiles and approximately 280 drones overnight into Thursday, July 30. Ukrainian defenses intercepted or suppressed 55 of the missiles and 265 of the drones, but shot down only one of the nine ballistic missiles launched.

Lviv absorbed some of the heaviest damage. The city was struck at around 4:45 a.m. local time, and the number of people injured there rose to 30 as rescue operations continued, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv regional military administration.

Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said more than 20 residential buildings were damaged, along with a school and two kindergartens. Deputy mayor Serhiy Kiral said rescue operations were ongoing at the impact sites, and he described the attack as the most significant strike on Lviv since a drone attack on the city in March.

Dnipropetrovsk suffered the highest death toll from a single region. Regional military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha said the attack killed six people there and wounded ten, including three children in the Kryvyi Rih area, a six-year-old girl and boys aged 11 and 17. Their parents also died in the same strike, though rescuers pulled two other children out alive.

Kyiv also came under ballistic missile fire. National Police said the strikes killed a 31-year-old man in the capital and wounded two other people, adding to a toll that Zelensky described in a Telegram statement alongside images of destroyed houses and rescue workers clearing rubble.

Poland Scrambles Jets after Suspected Russian Missile Crosses Border

Poland, a member of both the European Union and Nato, scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace once the overnight barrage began. An unidentified object was detected in Polish airspace at around 3:40 a.m. local time, and helicopter crews later found a crater near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the Lublin region after the object dropped off radar.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he convened a coordination group with the defense minister and other agencies to investigate the incident. He later said that “everything indicates that it was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile,” adding that Polish forces were ready to shoot it down had it continued its flight. Tusk said no casualties or damage had been reported at the crash site.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the missile’s presence in Polish territory amounted to a clear violation of Nato airspace. He said strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses is now urgent for protecting the wider Euro-Atlantic community, not just Ukraine itself.

This is The Latest in A String of Polish Airspace Incidents

Thursday’s incident adds to a growing list of airspace breaches Poland has reported since the war began. In November 2022, a missile struck the Polish village of Przewodow and killed two people, though investigators later concluded it was most likely a Ukrainian air-defense missile fired in response to a Russian attack.

A Russian cruise missile briefly crossed into Polish airspace in March 2024 before returning to Ukraine, prompting Warsaw to demand an explanation from Moscow. Then in September 2025, around 19 to 20 Russian drones crossed into Poland from Belarusian territory, an incursion Tusk called an intentional provocation and one that pushed Poland closer to open conflict than at any point since the second World War.

If Thursday’s incident is confirmed as a Russian missile, officials say it would rank among the most serious Polish airspace violations of the war. Poland has since signed an agreement for a new anti-drone system intended to be the first of its kind in Europe, built specifically to protect the country’s eastern border.

The War has Already Devastated Ukrainian and Russian Aviation

Russia’s overnight barrage is only the latest chapter in a war that has repeatedly targeted aviation assets on both sides. Russian forces destroyed the world’s largest aircraft, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, at Hostomel Airport just outside Kyiv on the first day of the invasion in February 2022, along with several other Antonov aircraft based there.

Dozens of fighter jets and helicopters have been lost on both sides since then. Ukrainian and Russian MiG-29, Su-25, Su-27, and Su-24M aircraft have been shot down in air-to-air battles and ground strikes throughout the conflict, with pilots killed on both sides during intercept missions against drones and missiles.

The aviation toll extends well beyond military hardware. More than 30 countries, including EU member states, the UK, and the US, barred Russian airlines from their airspace within weeks of the invasion, forcing Aeroflot and other Russian carriers off transatlantic and European routes entirely.

Russia’s Own Airline Industry Is Buckling Under Sanctions

The strain from more than four years of Western sanctions has caught up with Russia’s civil aviation sector in recent weeks. Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said in late July that state conglomerate Rostec is folding four aviation businesses, including passenger carrier Red Wings, into a single holding company, a move it argues is designed to hide financial losses rather than fix them.

Ukrainian intelligence said Red Wings can currently run scheduled flights with only one of its three Boeing 777 aircraft, while cargo carrier SkyGates is short on engines and spare parts. The agency argued that a corporate reorganization cannot restore the supply of Western aircraft components that sanctions have cut off since 2022.

That aviation strain sits inside a broader economic slowdown in Russia. The Moscow Exchange index posted its steepest single-day drop since September 2022 in mid-July, while Russia’s central bank reported its weakest business climate reading since the early months of the war.

What Happens Next

Poland’s government continues to investigate the crash site near Tarnawa-Kolonia, and Tusk has said Warsaw remains in contact with Nato command and other European leaders about the incident. Russia’s embassy in Warsaw has previously dismissed similar accusations of airspace violations as unfounded.

For Ukraine, Thursday’s barrage extends a pattern of large-scale strikes that officials say are now occurring on a nearly weekly basis over the summer. Zelensky has repeatedly pressed allies to speed up deliveries of air-defense systems, warning that gaps in coverage are allowing more Russian missiles and drones to reach their targets.