Russian drones and bombers prompt air defense scramble in Ukraine's allies

In the night from Thursday to Friday, the Russian army launched a series of drones towards Ukraine. The deployment of Tu-95 strategic bombers was also noted, and alarm sirens wailed across the country. In response, allied fighter jets were scrambled in Poland.

"Attention, in the southeastern area of the country, there may be an elevated noise level related to the start of operations in our airspace by Polish and allied aircraft," informed the Operational Command on social media in the middle of the night.

The military reported that "it is another very busy night for Poland's entire air defense system." "The cause of the actions is the activity of the long-range aviation of the Russian Federation, carrying out strikes using cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles on targets located, among others, in the western territory of Ukraine," the statement read.

The Operational Command assured that "all necessary procedures aimed at ensuring the safety of Polish airspace were activated, and the Operational Command of the Armed Forces is continuously monitoring the situation."

The first group of "Shaheds" was noticed on Thursday at 10:42 PM, moving from the southeast towards the Dnipropetrovsk region. Later, another group of UAVs was observed heading from Kherson to the Mykolaiv region.

Russian drones were moving deeper into Ukraine. Each message from the Ukrainian Air Force reported a westward course. There were repeated explosions in Zaporizhzhia.

Around 3:00 AM, alarm sirens wailed across Ukraine. At that time, it was also reported that a group of cruise missiles was observed in the Chernihiv region, heading towards the center of the country. An hour later, the mayor of Lviv reported a cruise missile heading towards Lviv.