Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says at least eight drones targeted Poland during Russian attack

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KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that at least eight Russian drones were aimed towards Poland during Russian attacks overnight.

Poland shot down drones that entered its airspace during a widespread Russian attack in western Ukraine on Wednesday, believed to be the first time a member of the alliance has fired shots in the war. Poland called the incursion “an act of aggression”.

“Today there was another step of escalation – Russian-Iranian ‘shaheds’ operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace,” Zelenskiy wrote on X, referring to Iranian-made drones widely used by Russia.

“It was not just one ‘shahed’ that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland,” Zelenskiy wrote.

A total of around 415 drones and more than 40 missiles were deployed in the attack on Ukraine, which spanned 15 Ukrainian regions, killed one person in the Zhytomyr region and injured three more in Khmelnytskyi region, he said.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 386 of 415 drones and 27 of 43 missiles launched overnight. It recorded impacts of 16 missiles and 21 drones at 17 locations.

Officials in the central region of Vinnytsia said civilian industrial sites were struck. In the western Volyn region, emergency services said they put out a fire which spanned 1,000 square meters.

Following the attack, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha called on neighbouring countries to use their air defence to intercept aerial targets over Ukraine.

“Ukraine has suggested such step for a long time. It needs to be taken for the sake of collective security,” Sybiha wrote on X.

(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Peter Graff)