Russia launched a wave of ballistic missile and drone strikes across Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned allies of an imminent "massive" attack and urged them to supply additional air defence weapons. The strikes extended from the capital Kyiv to the western city of Lviv — close to the Polish border — prompting Poland to scramble fighter jets and activate ground-based air defence systems to protect its airspace. Polish military officials later reported detecting an unidentified object that crossed into Polish territory, with a probable crash site found near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the Lublin province.
The deadliest strike hit Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine and Zelenskyy's hometown, where a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile, launched from Russia's Voronezh region, struck a private house sheltering a large family. Six people were killed, including two girls aged five and twelve; eight more were wounded. Officials warned the death toll could rise as emergency workers cleared rubble. One person was killed in Kyiv, while six others, including two children, died in the Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions. In Lviv, missiles damaged two apartment buildings, injuring at least 26 people and trapping residents under debris. Russia's Ministry of Defence said its forces had targeted military facilities across Ukraine and also struck three cargo ships near the Black Sea city of Odesa, accusing them of carrying weapons.
Zelenskyy had posted on social media late Wednesday that Russian forces had prepared the attack days in advance, urging Ukrainians across all regions to heed air raid alerts. Returning from Washington, where he had met President Donald Trump, Zelenskyy reiterated that the safety of Ukrainian civilians depended directly on allies' willingness to provide air defence missiles. Ukraine faces a critical shortage of PAC-3 interceptor missiles — the only munitions capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles — a deficit that has worsened since the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran in February, diverting some of that supply.
In a parallel development, Ukrainian forces struck two of Russia's largest oil refineries overnight — a Lukoil facility in the Perm region, more than 1,500 kilometres from Ukraine's border, and a refinery in Ryazan, roughly 400 kilometres away — according to Ukraine's Security Service and General Staff. The refineries together have an annual production capacity of around 220 million barrels and are considered vital to Russia's war economy. Ukrainian long-range drone and missile strikes, which Zelenskyy has labelled "long-range sanctions," have battered Russian energy infrastructure for months, contributing to fuel shortages and rising prices inside Russia. A Ukrainian drone attack also set fire to a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, in the western Russian city of Penza, injuring one person and forcing the evacuation of around 200 workers.
The exchange of long-range strikes underlines how both sides are intensifying pressure even as diplomatic efforts to end the war show little progress. While Zelenskyy's Washington visit yielded an agreement in principle for Ukraine to receive licences to manufacture Patriot missiles domestically, analysts caution that Russia's leadership remains firmly committed to continuing the war. The Kremlin has reiterated longstanding demands — including Ukrainian cession of occupied territories — as preconditions for any talks, while Putin recently signed legislation expanding the Russian military further. For Ukraine, the demonstrated reach of its drone strikes has bolstered morale and helped restore Washington's goodwill, but a negotiated settlement remains a distant prospect.