Russian strikes on Ukraine kill 8; Poland scrambles fighter jets

Russian air strikes killed at least eight people in Ukraine on Thursday, including one in Kyiv, in attacks extending as far as ‌the western city of Lviv, forcing neighboring Poland to scramble fighter jets to secure its airspace.The attacks come as President Volodymyr Zelensky returns from the United States, where he said President Donald Trump agreed to give Ukraine licenses for Patriot missiles.Air raid alerts sounded across most regions of Ukraine, with a Reuters witness saying explosions were heard in Kyiv.A few non-residential sites caught fire, ​Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.One person was killed and two more injured in the capital, emergency services said, with six ​more, including two children, killed in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

One person was killed in Poltava, regional officials said.In Zelenskiy’s hometown, the ⁠central city of Kryvyi Rih, two girls aged 5 and 12 were among the six killed, with eight injured in what Oleksandr Vilkul, the city’s defense council ​head, said was a direct strike by a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile.“A dark night,” Vilkul said on Telegram, adding that the missile, launched from Russia’s Voronezh region, struck ​the home of a large family, and warned the death toll could increase as emergency workers clear away rubble.In Lviv, close to Poland, rescue workers were scrambling to clear rubble to reach those trapped after Russian missiles damaged two apartment buildings and injured 26, officials said.Earlier, Zelensky had warned a massive Russian attack was likely, saying the safety of Ukrainians depended on the willingness of ​allies to provide anti-missile defenses.“It is important that our partners fully understand what is happening and that the protection of people’s lives depends directly on their willingness,” ​Zelensky wrote on Telegram.Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday its forces struck what it called military facilities across Ukraine, in ar...