(LONDON) — NATO military aircraft were deployed in Polish and Romanian airspace overnight and on Wednesday morning, in response to the latest wave of Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, officials in both allied nations said.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 161 drones — of which 82 were jet-powered — and an unspecified number of Banderol cruise missiles into the country overnight. Air defenses intercepted or suppressed 119 drones and three cruise missiles, the air force said, with impacts recorded across 18 locations.
Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command said in a post to X that Polish fighter jets were scrambled “to ensure safety” due to Russian “strikes using jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles on targets in western Ukraine.”
The alert concluded after approximately an hour. The command said that no violations of Polish airspace were recorded.
In Romania, which borders Ukraine to the country’s southwest, the Defense Ministry in Bucharest said that two Romanian F-16 fighter jets were scrambled on Tuesday night “to respond to an aerial target maneuvering in the northeast of the locality of Valkove, on Ukrainian territory, near the border with Romania.”
Around an hour later, the ministry said that the alert had concluded and that “no incursions into national airspace have been reported.”
The scrambling of NATO assets in response to Russian air attacks in Ukraine has become commonplace in recent years. On multiple occasions, Russian drones have entered NATO airspace and have even crashed on NATO territory, most commonly in Poland and in Romania. Fighter jets have also downed incurring Russian drones over both nations.
NATO leaders have framed the growing threat of Russian drone incursions as part of Moscow’s so-called “hybrid warfare” strategy against Ukraine’s NATO backers. The Kremlin, meanwhile, has consistently denied any responsibility for drone violations of allied airspace.
On Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry described its latest round of overnight strikes on Ukraine as having targeted military-industrial and energy targets sites in the Kyiv region and in the southern Odesa region, which borders Romania.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that one person was killed and seven people were injured by overnight attacks in the capital.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that two people were injured by overnight Russian strikes in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia. Two more people were injured by attacks in the Zhytomyr region in northwestern Ukraine, the SES said, with eight people injured by Russian attacks in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
The SES also reported strikes in the central Poltava region and in Odesa, though said there were no casualties reported in either location.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces downed 514 Ukrainian drones overnight. The craft, it said, were shot down over 17 Russian regions, plus over occupied Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
In the Belgorod region of western Russia, which borders Ukraine, local Governor Alexander Shuvaev said that eight people were injured by Ukrainian drone attacks.
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