Poland and Romania both scrambled jets overnight in their airspaces in response to a Russian bombardment in western Ukraine, close to the borders of both NATO countries.

Moscow unleashed a wave of drones and missiles on Ukraine overnight, targeting the western cities of Lviv and Ternopil. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes, which damaged residential apartment buildings far from the country’s eastern front line, killed nine people and injured dozens, with others possibly trapped under rubble.

Warsaw’s operational command said in a post on X it had deployed “quick-reaction fighter pairs and an early warning aircraft” as a precaution, adding “ground-based air defence and radar surveillance systems” were at “the highest state of readiness.” 

Polish authorities also shut two airports, Rzeszow and Lublin, in the southeast of the country amid Russia’s aerial assault. 

Romania’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, announced it had scrambled four jets — two German Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft and two Romanian Air Force F-16s — shortly after midnight in response to a drone incursion about 5 miles into Romanian airspace.  

Corneliu Pavel, the ministry’s spokesperson, told Romanian outlet Digi24 the jets had the green light to shoot down the drone but decided not to when its signal vanished. 

Both countries’ operations involved NATO allies, with the Polish operational command thanking the alliance and fellow members Norway, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany for their assistance in monitoring Poland’s airspace.  

Russia’s war in Ukraine has spilled over in recent days, with a Romanian village evacuated Monday when a gas tanker across the river in a Ukrainian port was set ablaze by a Russian strike. 

A section of the train route between Warsaw and Lublin, which connects to Ukraine, was also blown up by saboteurs over the weekend, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. 

Russia’s overnight assault on Ukraine also targeted Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Dnipro, Zelenskyy said, and he called on additional air support for Ukraine and more punishing sanctions on Moscow.

“Every brazen attack against ordinary life proves that the pressure on Russia is still insufficient,” he warned.