Russia launched scores of missiles and drones at Ukrainian targets on the morning of Aug. 26, striking energy facilities across the country and killing at least five people, according to Ukrainian officials.
“It was one of the biggest combined strikes. More than a hundred missiles of various types and about a hundred Shahed drones,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.
“Like most previous Russian strikes, this one is just as sneaky, targeting critical civilian infrastructure.”
According to Ukrainian officials, the strikes targeted energy infrastructure in multiple regions, including Kyiv, causing power cuts and water supply outages.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said 15 regions of Ukraine had been affected by what he called a “massive Russian attack.”
According to the prime minister, drones and cruise missiles were used in the attack, which he said led to a still undetermined number of casualties.
At least one person was killed in the Dnipropetrovsk region, with casualties also reported in Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, and Volyn, according to local officials.
Central Kyiv was reportedly rocked by explosions, while air defenses could be heard on the city’s outskirts engaging incoming missiles and drones.
A railway facility was reportedly struck in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, from which Kyiv launched a cross-border offensive into Russia in early October 2023.
In a statement, Kyiv’s air force said Russian TU-95 strategic bombers and other types of military aircraft had been used to carry out the wave of strikes.
Moscow has since confirmed the attack.
“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a group strike by long-range air- and sea-based precision weaponry, as well as Operational-Tactical Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, attack unmanned aerial vehicles at the critical power infrastructure of Ukrainian defence industry,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. “All the assigned targets have been destroyed resulting in power outages and disruption of railway transportation of arms and ammunition to the line of contact.”
Moscow typically says it uses precision weapons to avoid killing civilians, claiming that all strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure serve a purely military purpose.
Last week, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv warned of an elevated risk of attack on or around Ukraine’s Independence Day on Aug. 24.
Polish Air Force on Alert
Poland scrambled military aircraft following the Russian barrage on neighboring Ukraine, the Polish Armed Forces said in a statement.“All necessary measures to ensure the safety of Polish airspace have been taken.”
It also warned citizens of “increased noise levels” in Poland’s southeast—near the border with Ukraine—“due to the start of operations of Polish and allied aircraft in [the] airspace.”
Poland, a longstanding NATO member, shares a roughly 330-mile-long border with northwestern Ukraine.
At midday on Aug. 26, Polish authorities said a drone had likely entered its airspace during the Russian bombardment.
“Most likely, it was a drone ... because the trajectory of the flight and the speed indicate that it was definitely not a missile,” a spokesman for the Polish military’s operational command told Reuters.
Military personnel are now searching for the object in Polish territory, the spokesman said, noting that it remained unclear whether the object had originated in Russia or Ukraine.
In late 2022, a missile of unknown origin landed in Polish territory, briefly sparking fears of an imminent clash between Russia and NATO.
However, it was quickly determined that the missile in question had been launched into Poland—in error, presumably—by Ukrainian forces.
