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Poland scrambles jets, puts air defense on high alert during Russian missile attack on Ukraine

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Poland scrambles jets, puts air defense on high alert during Russian missile attack on Ukraine
Illustrative purposes only: F-16 fighter jets during a military parade on Polish Armed Forces Day in Warsaw, Poland on Aug. 15, 2023. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Polish and other allied aircraft were quickly mobilized on Feb. 1 in response to a large-scale missile attack by Russia on western Ukraine, Poland's Armed Forces reported on X.

"Attention, due to the attack of the Russian Federation performing strikes on facilities located in the west of Ukraine, among others, the operation of Polish and allied aviation in our airspace has begun,” the statement said.

All available forces and means were activated during the attack, the command said, adding that it was constantly monitoring the situation.

In accordance with procedures, fighter jets were dispatched, and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance assets were put on high alert, the Polish military said.

Russia launched a combined attack of 165  unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and missiles at Ukraine overnight and in the morning on Feb. 1, Ukraine's Air Force reported. Ukrainian air defense intercepted 56 Russian UAVs, the Air Force said.

At least seven people were killed and 14 injured in a residential building strike in Poltava. Civilian entreprises and infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky, and Kyiv oblasts were damaged, according to the report.

Poland has scrambled jets amid Russian attacks on Ukraine several times over the past year.

Russian attacks against Ukraine kill 9, injure 36 over past day
“Last night, Russia attacked our cities using various types of weapons: missiles, attack drones, and aerial bombs. Another terrorist crime,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram in response to the attacks.
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Natalia Yermak

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Natalia Yermak is a staff writer for the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a fixer-producer and contributing reporter for the New York Times since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. Previously, she worked in film production and documentary.

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The Kyiv Independent staff documented what it feels like to live and sleep in Kyiv, Ukraine, as Russia intensifies its drone and missile attacks on the city. Filmed over several weeks in June and July, our journalists take shelter in bathrooms, basements, and parking garages as explosions ring out overhead.

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