NATO scrambles fighter jets after Putin launches attack with nuclear bombers
NATO was forced to scramble warplanes overnight after Vladimir Putin launched a devastating new bombardment on Ukraine using nuclear bombers that threatened the borders of four eastern members.
The Russian despot ordered a hypersonic missile and drone onslaught that hit the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk overnight in the strongest attack of the 1,243-day war, as well as Kyiv and Kharkiv. Polish military commanders said NATO members were placed on "the highest level of alert" and deployed fighters for the second time in three days as the massive bombardment came within just a few dozen miles of several alliance members' borders.
Military commanders in Poland announced that Polish and other allied nations launched fighters after the strikes came between 60 to 100 miles of the Hungarian, Polish, Romanian and Slovakian borders.
They said in a statement posted on social media: 'Polish and allied [NATO] air forces have commenced operations, and ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest level of alert.
'Long-range aviation of the Russian Federation once again launched a massive missile strike on Ukrainian territory,' said the statement from Polish armed forces command. In response to this aggressive activity, and with the security of the Republic of Poland in mind, all procedures aimed at strengthening the protection of Polish airspace were immediately initiated.'
Russian missile and drone bombardment of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk - the heaviest of the war - was carried out using strategic, nuclear-capable Tu-95MS bombers. Four people were injured, including a child in the attack local mayor Roman Martsinkiv described as the largest "since the beginning of the full-scale invasion".
Three villages in the Ivano-Frankivsk region were hit by the Russian war machine. One man was killed and several wounded in a fearsome ten-hour missile and drone onslaught on Kyiv, with the carnage afflicting civilians.
A 15-year-old girl was among those hurt. The strikes targeted the Artyom military plant and Zhulyany airport in Kyiv, but also hit multiple districts - Holosiivskyi, Darnytskyi, Dniprovskyi, Obolonskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, Solomianskyi and Shevchenkivskyi - in the capital. The entrance to the Lukianivska metro station, where people were sheltering during the night of hell, was damaged.
A nursery school was burning in Kyiv after a Russian missile attack which also left the city blanketed in thick noxious fumes. A dozen strikes hit Ukrainian second city Kharkiv, with explosions thundering in the city.
In Khmelnytskyi region, 20 houses were damaged by the Russian strikes. But Putin was left humiliated by the scale of fight and rail chaos inflicted by Ukrainian strikes. Worst-hit was Moscow's major international airport Sheremetyevo, where Defence Ministry TV station Zvezda admitted: 'People are standing in long lines.
'Many are trying to sleep wherever they can before their flight — some lie down by chairs in the waiting area, others even use decorative 'islands' with grass as temporary sleeping spots.'
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