NATO countries scrambled fighter jets early on Sunday, according to the Polish military, after a Ukrainian official said Moscow had launched its largest-scale air attack on the country in more than three years.
Poland’s Operational Command said its fighter jets, along with other NATO aircraft, were scrambled with ground-based air defenses and reconnaissance systems put on the “highest state of readiness” after Russia launched overnight attacks on Ukrainian territory.
Warsaw’s military said in a later statement NATO aircraft had finished operations after the “level of threat from missile strikes by Russian aviation on Ukrainian territory” reduced. No Russian missiles or drones entered Polish airspace, the command said.
Ukrainian authorities said Russia had launched 477 drones and decoys, as well as 60 missiles of various types, at Ukraine overnight.
The attacks into Sunday were the largest airstrikes on Ukraine of more than three years of full-scale war in the country in terms of number of incoming threats, Colonel Yuriy Ignat, an official with Ukraine’s air force, confirmed to Newsweek.
Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine have occasionally spilled over into NATO nations like Poland and Romania, which border Ukraine.
NATO members are collectively obliged to respond to attacks on alliance nations with full force.
Drones and missiles entering NATO airspace have not been treated as attacks on the alliance so far, but Polish authorities have repeatedly scrambled aircraft because of Moscow’s aerial attacks on Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities in the western Lviv and Volyn regions, bordering Poland, reported air alerts overnight, but no casualties. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said overnight “a massive attack on the western regions of Ukraine is underway,” targeting critical infrastructure.
Updates to follow.
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