WARSAW—Poland scrambled fighter jets on Monday morning to secure its airspace after neighboring western Ukraine was hit by major Russian strikes.
“Due to the intensive air attack by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aircraft began to operate in Polish airspace in the morning,” Warsaw’s Operational Command said in a statement on social media.
Russia struck deep beyond the frontlines overnight, hitting western Ukraine with dozens of drones and missiles, according to Rivne Mayor Oleksandr Tretyak, who called it “the largest attack” on the region.
Russia has recently accelerated its campaign against Ukraine, dampening hopes of a ceasefire after a renewed diplomatic push to end the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Poland is one of Ukraine’s closest allies and serves as a crucial logistics hub for Western military aid to Kyiv.
In March 2024, NATO member Poland reported a breach of its airspace by a Russian cruise missile, demanding an explanation from Moscow.
A similar incident occurred in Dec, 2023, when a Russian missile penetrated Polish airspace for several minutes before returning to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, sitting on camping chairs with sunglasses and sodas in hand, Yevgen and his friends soaked up the searing Mezhova sun.
Russia has said it is advancing into the surrounding eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in its three-year invasion.
Mezhova, a town just 13 kilometers from the flashpoint Donetsk region, now risks becoming a target for a Russian ground offensive.
Few locals dare venture into the nearest village to the east, where drones reportedly strike nearly every vehicle.
Yevgen Grinshenko, 26, and his friends fled Pokrovsk, a Donetsk mining town that has suffered intense Russian-Ukrainian clashes.
“I’m no longer afraid of anything. We’ve been through it all,” said the round-faced aid volunteer, wounded by Russian projectiles in Pokrovsk.
“That fear has become a part of my life,” he told AFP.
But the apparent calm in the town is deceptive. Most of its original residents have fled, said Yevgen.
“Everyone who remains is displaced.”
Since an order to evacuate local children was issued last month by the authorities, the town is “panicking a bit,” an elderly passerby told AFP.
In Mezhova, colorful Soviet-era cars have been replaced by khaki 4x4s, and eerily quiet streets are patrolled by soldiers.
Olga Motuzenko, a 66-year-old teacher, fled fighting in Pokrovsk and reached Mezhova. Wearing a small white lace hat, she was selling onions from her garden by the side of the road.
“They could be here in two days,” she said.
She and her husband had believed Mezhova would be safe, that the front would hold.
“But it didn’t work out,” she said with a sigh.
Her home in Pokrovsk “no longer exists,” and she had to leave with her husband, taking barely half of their belongings.
“I don’t feel good here. We are thinking about moving elsewhere again,” she murmured in a frail voice.
For now, she stays so her ailing husband can still receive treatment. What would force her to leave?
“If everything is bombed.”
But Russian explosive drones already fly overhead, and some vehicles have been hit, she said.
Lieutenant Colonel Oleksander came to a cafe to mark his 60th birthday with fellow soldiers — a celebration he once pictured sharing with his wife and grandchildren, not on the front lines.
“It’s unfortunately true, fighting is happening here and there,” the trim-moustached officer said, warning that the Russians “are already very close” to the regional border.
“They are advancing slowly, very slowly, but they are advancing.”
In fruitless talks with Ukraine, Russia demanded recognition of its annexation of Crimea and four other regions where its forces are deployed — including Donetsk — as a condition for any negotiations.
Asked whether he feared Moscow might lay claim to a sixth Ukrainian region, Oleksander brushed off the idea.
“They could claim all of Ukraine belongs to them. It won’t matter. Our resistance won’t change,” he declared.
For his 60th birthday, Oleksander had just one wish — for the war to end quickly. He was weary of seeing young people “die every day”.
“It’s hard,” he said. “Impossible to accept.”
