Russian missile hits Polish territory amid attacks on Ukraine

ILLUSTRATION PHOTO/Russian military/© Alexander Reka/TASS

JAKARTA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed "inadequate or late" air defense supplies for the deaths of people in various regions of Ukraine in the latest wave of Russian drone and missile attacks.

During the attack, authorities in Poland - a country bordering Ukraine to the west - declared an "unidentified object" violated national airspace, triggering the deployment of fighter jets and helicopters.

As reported by ABC News, Thursday, July 30, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha suspected that the object that crossed Polish territory was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was in contact with NATO commanders and other European leaders "regarding the violation of Polish airspace. All parties expressed full solidarity and readiness to provide any assistance."

Zelenskyy said eight people were killed and dozens more were wounded.

The attacks targeted Kyiv and nine other regions, from Lviv in the west of the country - which borders Poland - to Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast close to the Russian border.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force stated that Russia launched 284 drones and 70 missiles, including nine ballistic missiles. The air force said they managed to intercept or disable 265 drones and 55 missiles.

Initial information indicates that 11 missiles and 17 drones hit 20 locations.

"In the midst of a situation where we are very short of supplies of air defense missiles from our partners, our soldiers did the seemingly impossible and showed a very high level of professionalism," Zelenskyy said, highlighting the number of missiles that were successfully dropped. "This extraordinary skill saves lives when supplies of missiles for air defense systems are inadequate or delayed," he wrote in a post on Telegram.