KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia has launched its third major missile attack on Ukraine in the past four days, the second targeting the capital of Kiev. The Polish military said one of the missiles fired into western Ukraine on Sunday briefly entered its airspace. .
Kiev military junta chief Serhiy Popko said Russia used a cruise missile fired from a Tu-95MS strategic bomber. The capital was under air alert for more than two hours as rockets entered Kiev en masse from the north.
He said the attack was launched from the Engels district of Russia’s Saratov region.
KYIV, UKRAINE – MARCH 24: The Ukrainian military continues to investigate the area where rocket fragments fell on a park in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 24, 2024. (Photo by Danylo Antoniuk/Anadolu, Getty Images)
According to preliminary data, there were no casualties or damage in the capital, he said.
Poland’s airspace, a NATO member, said in a statement that at 4:23 a.m. (3:23 GMT), Russia fired a cruise missile at a town in western Ukraine that violated Polish airspace. Announced.
The object entered the vicinity of the Polish town of Oseldow and remained there for 39 seconds, the statement said. It added that military radar systems were monitoring the missile throughout and that all necessary steps to ensure the safety of Polish airspace had been initiated.
Polish Defense Minister Wladysław Kosiniak-Kamisz told a televised news conference that the Russian missile would have been shot down if there was any indication it was heading for a Polish target. He said the missile penetrated Polish airspace by about 1,000 to 2,000 meters (0.6 miles to 1.2 miles).
Russia launches coordinated attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructurehttps://t.co/DA0Ws7AGHs
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Poland’s Foreign Ministry said it would “demand an explanation from the Russian Federation regarding the new violation of its airspace.”
“Above all, we call on the Russian Federation to cease terrorist airstrikes against the population and territory of Ukraine, end the war and address its internal problems,” the statement said.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, there have been numerous incursions into Polish airspace.
In 2022, two Polish nationals were killed in a missile explosion. Western officials claim that these deaths were due to the accidental firing of Ukrainian air defense missiles, while saying that Russia started the war and that the Ukrainian missiles were fired in self-defense. He also blamed Russia.
Meanwhile, one person was killed and four others injured in a Ukrainian military missile attack on Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea on Saturday night, Mayor Mikhail Razbodyaev announced on his Telegram channel.
