Russia unleashes another record drone attack on Ukraine, including near Polish border

Russia targeted Ukraine with a record 728 drones overnight, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv and aimed unusually direct criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian air defence units destroyed almost all the drones, including through electronic jamming systems, Ukraine's air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

The attack, which follows a series of escalating air assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks, showed the need for "biting" sanctions on the sources of income Russia uses to finance the war, including on those who buy Russian oil, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

In a statement, Russia's Defence Ministry also said that it had hit Ukrainian military airfields in strikes overnight.

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Residents of Kyiv and other major cities spent the night in air raid shelters, including metro stations.

Part of Russia's overnight strike was aimed at a western region close to NATO-member Poland. The northwestern city of Lutsk, some 200 kilometres from Poland, was the main target, Zelenskyy said, listing 10 other provinces across the country where damage was also reported.

Polish and allied aircraft were activated to ensure air safety, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said.

Buildings were damaged but no deaths or injuries reported in what amounted to the biggest airstrike of the war on Lutsk, a city of 200,000 people, regional authorities said.

A storage facility of a local enterprise and some parking structures were ablaze, the mayor of Lutsk, Ihor Polishchuk said.

Ivan Rudnytskyi, governor of the Volyn region that includes Lutsk, said 50 Russian drones and five missiles were in the region's airspace overnight.

"It was the most massive enemy attack with UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] and missiles on our city and community," Polishchuk said in a social media video.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack on a beach in Kursk killed three people, including a Russian serviceman engaged in rescue operations, the acting governor of the region said early on Wednesday.

Alexander Khinshtein said on the Telegram messaging app that the attack also left seven people in hospital with serious injuries, including a five-year-old child.

Khinshtein said one of those killed was a member of Russia's National Guard who had been trying to evacuate people from the scene.

"He had arrived at the beach with his comrades after people began reporting about the drone attack," Khinshtein said. "The senior sergeant had begun to evacuate people when a second explosion occurred. Unfortunately, he did not survive."

Reuters could not independently verify the account, and the Ukraine government had yet to comment.

Ukrainian forces staged a large incursion into the Kursk region nearly a year ago. The Kremlin said earlier this year all Kyiv's forces have since been ejected from the region, but Ukrainian officials say their troops are still carrying out operations there.

Russia's defence ministry said on Telegram that its air defence units destroyed 86 Ukrainian drones overnight over nine Russian regions, including 23 drones over the Kursk region.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of targeting civilians in the course of the war, now well into its fourth year. Both sides deny the accusations, but thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

Russia's Defence Ministry also said on Wednesday that its forces have captured the village of Tolstoi, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Initial rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine during U.S. President Donald Trump's term have so far borne little fruit, with Moscow yet to accept an unconditional ceasefire proposed by Trump and accepted by Kyiv.

Trump, who returned to power this year promising a swift end to the war in Ukraine, has shifted U.S. rhetoric away from staunch support for Kyiv towards accepting some of Moscow's justifications for the full-scale invasion it launched in 2022.

Trump, as he has periodically in recent weeks, renewed criticism of Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, saying the Russian president's words had increasingly been "meaningless," and not matched by action in recent talks.

Trump said on Tuesday he was considering supporting a bill in the Senate that would impose steep sanctions on Russia, including 500 per cent tariffs on nations that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports.

When asked by a reporter what action he would take against Putin, Trump said: "I wouldn't tell you. We want to have a little surprise."

The U.S. president has promised to supply more defensive weapons, which would reverse a Pentagon decision days earlier to stall some critical munitions supplies to Ukraine.

Trump privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing the pause in deliveries that included some air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, according to an Associated Press report citing three people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive internal discussions. Trump felt the move wasn't properly co-ordinated with the White House, per the report.

Two of the people said there was some internal opposition among Pentagon brass to the pause — co-ordinated by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby — before it was announced.

One of the people described Trump as being caught "flat footed" by the announcement. The White House did not respond to queries about whether Trump was surprised by the Pentagon pause.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson denied that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had acted without consulting the president.