Kyiv —
An unidentified object crashed and exploded in a Polish village about 95 kilometers (60 miles) from the Ukrainian border early Thursday, Polish authorities said, as Russia launched deadly long-range attacks across Ukraine.
According to the Polish military, the projectile crashed near the village of Tarnava Kolonia in Lublin province. Polish police said residents reported hearing a powerful explosion.
Poland had earlier scrambled fighter jets in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which hit large swaths of the country, killing at least seven people, including children, and leaving several others trapped under rubble.
The overnight raids came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with US President Donald Trump at the White House and asked him to provide Ukraine with additional air defense systems.
In a statement posted on Telegram on Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had carried out “large-scale attacks using long-range precision weapons from land, air and sea” and attack drones against military positions across Ukraine.
The attack came as Ukraine suffered its highest civilian casualties in a month since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, with at least one person killed in the capital Kiev, local authorities said.
A ballistic missile hit the house of a large family in the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rikh, killing six people, the head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Virkul, said on Telegram. “It was a dark night,” he said, adding that two girls, aged 5 and 12, were among those killed.
At least eight more people were injured, Virkle said, adding that the death toll could rise further as emergency workers work to clear the damage.
Rescue workers were also trying to rescue people trapped under rubble after the attack in the city of Lviv, near the Polish border, Mayor Andriy Sadowy said. According to the head of the Lviv military junta, more than a dozen people were injured.
Ukraine’s air force warned early Thursday morning local time that Russia had launched a wave of missiles as a warning to the population.
Videos posted on social media showed families taking shelter in a crowded Kiev metro station, some sleeping under blankets on the floor or in small tents.
Some of the most gruesome scenes in the aftermath of Thursday’s attack were revealed in Mr. Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryvy Rikh.
Graphic video from the nearby village of Radushne showed bodies scattered among the rubble of shattered buildings and fires still burning.
I heard two invisible women talking. “We pulled out one of the children. There are still some lying there,” one said.
“There are children here. Lots of children,” said another.
Hours before the attack, Zelenskiy said he had received a report from the air force that Russia was preparing a “massive attack” across the country.
“A strike is likely to take place tonight,” Zelenskiy warned.
Also on Thursday, a warehouse belonging to Russian retailer Wildberries caught fire in the western city of Penza following a Ukrainian drone attack, regional governor Oleg Melnichenko said on Telegram. One person was injured and about 200 people were evacuated from the scene, Melnichenko said.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted distribution centers for Wildberry, Russia’s equivalent of the Amazon, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Russians and bringing Moscow’s war even closer to home.
Kiev claims the Wildberry facility is a legitimate military target because it supplies Russia’s frontline forces in Ukraine, a claim the Russian government denies.
