By Anna Pruchnicka
KYIV, May 13 (Reuters) - Russia unleashed a daytime drone attack on Ukraine on Wednesday, targeting critical infrastructure, killing at least three people in the west and prompting NATO-member Poland to scramble fighter jets, officials said.
Ukraine's HUR military intelligence said the drone assault was designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences, warning of subsequent missile strikes. It said the attack could be prolonged.
"Russia continues its strikes and is doing so brazenly – deliberately targeting our railway infrastructure and civilian sites in our cities," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.
"It is important to repel every attack with resilience. It is important to support Ukraine and not remain silent about Russia's war."
It was the first such major attack after a short-lived U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia which ended on Monday.
Poland scrambled fighter jets as a preventative measure due to the Russian air strikes on Ukraine, the Polish army said.
At the start of the attack, Zelenskiy said that more than 100 Russian drones had entered Ukrainian airspace. But there was no data immediately available on the full scale of the strike.
HUR said that Moscow targeted critical infrastructure and essential services in major cities, including energy, defence industry facilities and government buildings.
ATTACKS IN WESTERN UKRAINE
Three people were killed and another six wounded in the northwestern region of Rivne, the governor and police said.
The neighbouring Khmelnytskyi region also came under attack, its governor said, adding that three people had been wounded.
Explosions were also recorded in the northwestern city of Lutsk, the acting mayor said.
Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to the defence minister, said the strike highlighted the evolving use of drones by Moscow, with tactics changing from attack to attack.
This time, large numbers of drones were moving along between 5 km and 10 km from the Belarus border to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences and to get through to the western regions, he said.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than four years ago, it has mainly carried out major drone and missile strikes at night. In recent months, however, it has more frequently sent hundreds of drones and missiles during the daytime.
Russian drones also attacked the southern cities of Kherson and Odesa, where at least nine people were wounded, regional officials said.
Moscow denies intentionally attacking civilians but has killed thousands of them during the war, and says strikes on civilian infrastructure are legitimate if they weaken Ukraine's ability to fight.
Kyiv has lately intensified long-range attacks on Russia's energy industry, though on a smaller scale.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk, additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa in KyivEditing by William Maclean)
