FLASH
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Poland, a NATO member, said it scrambled jets in the early hours of Sunday to secure its airspace after Russia launched airstrikes on Ukraine. Ukrainian officials reported that missiles and drones struck the Lviv region near the Polish border.
"Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defense and radar detection systems are on the highest state of readiness," Poland's operational command said in a post on X.
NATO members on the eastern flank are on high alert after Poland shot down suspected Russian drones in its airspace in September, and drone sightings and air incursions, including those in Copenhagen and Munich, have led to chaos in European aviation.
Lithuania's Vilnius airport was closed for several hours overnight after reports of a series of possible balloons heading towards the airport late Saturday.
According to flight tracking service Flightradar24, early Sunday, commercial flights were using routes typically used when Poland's Lublin and Rzeszow airports near the border with Ukraine were closed.
There were no immediate announcements on the US Federal Aviation Administration website about possible flight disruptions in Rzeszów and Lublin.
All of Ukraine was on alert for airstrikes for several hours overnight, with the Ukrainian Air Force issuing the worst-case warnings of missile and drone attacks for the Lviv region.
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, a western Ukrainian city about 70 km from the border with Poland, said the city's air defense systems were heavily engaged in repelling first a drone and then a Russian missile attack.
As of 04:30, parts of the city were left without electricity and public transport had not yet started operating, with Sadovyi saying on the Telegram messaging app that it was "dangerous to go out into the streets".
A late Saturday attack in the city of Zaporizhia, the capital of the wider frontline Zaporizhia region, left one person dead and nine injured, Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor, said on Telegram.
"Apartment blocks and private houses were damaged, cars were burned," Fedorov said.
About 55 km southwest of the city of Zaporizhia, the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has been disconnected from external electricity since September 23.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog called on Ukraine and Russia on Friday to show the "political will" needed to maintain the safe zone around the plant, the largest in Europe, which was seized by Russian forces in the early weeks of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
There was no immediate comment from Russia about Saturday night's attacks.
Both sides have launched airstrikes throughout the war, aiming to destroy infrastructure considered essential to the overall war effort, including energy and transportation facilities.
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