Russia Exploits Ukraine Air Defence Gap, Kills 8
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- Russia launched more than 70 missiles—many ballistic—and 280+ attack drones across at least 10 Ukrainian regions overnight into Thursday, with Ukraine reporting more than 260 drones intercepted
- Dnipropetrovsk region suffered the deadliest toll with six killed, including three children aged 6, 11, and 17 in the Kryvyi Rih area whose parents were also killed; two more children were pulled alive from the rubble
- Zelenskyy blamed the casualties on a critical shortage of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile interceptors, noting the Iran war has drained Patriot stockpiles—just two days after Trump in Washington promised Patriot production licences that would take a long time to set up
- Poland is investigating a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile that crossed into NATO airspace overnight, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk traveling to a probable impact site in Lublin province
- Lviv, a western city near the Polish border far from the front line, took a cruise missile strike that wounded 34 people including three children; Kyiv was hit by ballistic missiles killing a 31-year-old man
- Ukraine struck back overnight, hitting Wildberries warehouses in Russia's Penza and Perm regions, while Russia's Defence Ministry claimed it downed 258 Ukrainian drones
Why it matters: The barrage struck western Ukraine including Lviv—hundreds of kilometers from the eastern front—signaling Russia is now hitting rear weapons-production hubs, and a Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace, putting NATO on alert exactly two days after Zelenskyy's Washington plea for faster Patriot interceptor deliveries that Trump conceded would take a long time to fulfil.
