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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine on Monday, killing at least four people and battering the country's already weakened energy grid, officials said.

Moscow's largest attack in weeks on Ukraine triggered widespread blackouts and came after Kyiv claimed new advances in its offensive in Russia's Kursk region.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched at least 127 missiles and 109 drones in "one of the largest Russian attacks".

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said 102 missiles and 99 drones were shot down.

In response to the strike, Zelensky urged European nations to help down drones and missiles over his nation battered by more than two years of war.

"If such unity has worked so well in the Middle East, it should work in Europe as well. Life has the same value everywhere," he added, apparently referring to the US helping Israel shoot down Iranian projectiles.

'Very scary' 

State-owned electricity supplier Ukrenergo announced emergency power cuts to stabilise its system following the barrage, while train schedules were disrupted.

Early on Monday, residents in the capital Kyiv rushed to take shelter in metro stations, as AFP reporters heard the booms of what appeared to be air defences.

"We are always worried. We have been under stress for almost three years now," said Yulia Voloshyna, a 34-year-old lawyer who was taking shelter in the Kyiv metro.

"It was very scary, to be honest. You don't know what to expect," she said.

Since invading in February 2022, Russia has launched repeated large-scale drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including punishing attacks on energy facilities.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed it hit energy facilities in a statement, claiming that they were being used to aid Ukraine's "military-production complex".

The attacks early on Monday killed at least four people and wounded over 20 people across the country, officials said.

Two others were killed in later strikes during the day, according to authorities.

Poland airspace 'violation' 

NATO member Poland said its airspace was violated during the barrage, probably by a drone.

"We are probably dealing with the entry of an object on Polish territory. The object was confirmed by at least three radiolocation stations," General Maciej Klisz, operational commander of the armed forces, told reporters.

Army command spokesman Jacek Goryszewski said "it is highly likely that it could have been a Shahed-type drone" of Iranian design, used by the Russian army.

"But this has to be verified," he told AFP, adding that it could not be ruled out that the drone had already left Polish territory.

The army said it was conducting searches for what was "probably an unmanned aerial vehicle" around 30 kilometres (18 miles) into Polish territory from the Ukrainian border.

Zelensky called for European airforces to help down drones and missiles in the future. 

"In our various regions of Ukraine, we could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbours worked together with our F-16s and together with our air defence," Zelensky said in an address.

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, said the attack showed that Kyiv needed permission to strike "deep into the territory of Russia with Western weapons".

Strike on Kramatorsk 

The aerial barrage came after a safety advisor working for the Reuters news agency, Ryan Evans, was killed in a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine late Saturday.

Six of the agency's crew covering the war were staying at the hotel in Kramatorsk, the last major city under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk region.

The Kremlin said there was "still no clarity" about the strike when asked about Zelensky's assertion that the attack was carried out "deliberately".

"I will say it again. The strikes are against military infrastructure targets or targets related to military infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Zelensky separately announced Sunday that his forces were advancing in the Russian region of Kursk, more than two weeks after Kyiv launched its surprise incursion across the border.

Meanwhile, one person died and six others were injured in a fire at an oil refinery in the Siberian city of Omsk on Monday, said regional governor Vitaly Khotsenko.

Authorities did not specify the source of the fire.

Russian media reported that loud explosions were heard near the refinery, operated by Russian oil giant Gazprom and about 2,300 kilometres from Ukraine.

Ukraine regularly carries out drone attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in Russia, sometimes far from its border.

BEIJING — China's coast guard said it rescued Filipino "personnel" who fell overboard Sunday after a Philippine vessel collided with one of its ships near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

The two nations have had repeated confrontations in the waters in recent months, and on Saturday Manila accused China of recently twice firing flares at one of its patrol aircraft.

China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu said Sunday's collision occurred when a Philippines vessel refused to comply with "control measures" near Xianbin Reef in the Nansha Islands -- using the Chinese names for the Sabina Shoal and the Spratly Islands also claimed by Manila.

It then "deliberately collided" with a Chinese Coast Guard ship, CCTV quoted Gan as saying, adding China had "promptly rescued the Philippine personnel who fell into the water".

It was unclear if "personnel" meant one or more people, and no further details were given.

"China warns the Philippines to immediately cease its infringing actions, otherwise the Philippines will bear all consequences resulting from this situation," Gan warned.

On Saturday the Philippines accused China of firing flares at one of its aircraft earlier this month as it patrolled the South China Sea. 

On Monday both countries also reported a collision between their coast guard ships near the disputed Sabina Shoal, located 140 kilometres west of the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200 kilometres from Hainan island, the closest Chinese landmass.

Manila said that was the first hostile action by Beijing against it near Sabina, where both sides have stationed coast guard vessels in recent months and where the Philippines fears China is about to build an artificial island.

China claims almost the entire sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis. 

It deploys boats to patrol the busy waterway and has built artificial islands that it has militarised to reinforce its claims.

KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed more "retribution" against Russia on Ukrainian Independence Day Saturday, as Kyiv and Moscow announced the exchange of 230 prisoners just over two weeks into Ukraine's surprise offensive on Kursk. 

Zelensky also signed a law banning the Russian-linked branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and called the legislation a "liberation from Moscow's devils".

Kyiv marked its independence from the Soviet Union at a tense moment in the long war as it mounts a push into Russia and Moscow eyes more east Ukrainian towns. 

Zelensky published a video of him standing in a hilly, forested area said to be near where Ukraine launched its shock incursion from on August 6. 

“What the enemy brought to our land has now returned to its home”, he said, adding that Russia will “know what retribution is”. 

Putin briefed on ‘invading enemy forces’ 

He called President Vladimir Putin a “sick man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the red button”, referring to nuclear war. 

Zelensky later said that one of the “goals” of Kyiv’s Kursk operation was to show Russians “what is more important to him [Putin]: the occupation of the territories of Ukraine or the protection of his population”. 

Kyiv has also said that the Kursk offensive aimed at stretching Russia’s reserves from eastern Ukraine. 

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with army chief Valery Gerasimov, with the Kremlin saying they had discussed “countering enemy forces invading the Kursk region and measures being taken to destroy them”.

The Kremlin’s choice of language was a break from previous statements that downplayed the surprise Ukrainian move. 

While it has visibly rattled Moscow, Ukraine’s Kursk operation has not slowed Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine. 

As Ukraine celebrated independence, Kyiv said a Russian strike on a residential of the easter city of Kostyantynivka, which lies near the frontline in the Donetsk region, killed five people. 

AFP witnessed a young boy and his dog walk up to a body, covered by a sheet, on the side of the road and watch as rescuers rushed to remove it.

People embraced standing next to another body, covered by a silver sheet, before emergency services removed it in a black body back. 

Ukraine has also carried out some evacuations from the hub of Pokrovsk amid fears it will fall to advancing Russian forces.

Both Kyiv and Moscow said they had returned 115 captive servicemen each in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. 

Zelensky published photographs of men wrapped in Ukrainian flags and Kyiv’s ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said dozens of those included Azovstal fighters from the epic 2022 battle for the steelworks in Mariupol. 

Ukraine has said one of the aims of its Kursk operation was to gain more Russian captives to get back its men from Russia. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday reaffirmed Berlin’s “continued and unwavering solidarity” with Ukraine, despite a planned reduction in Berlin’s budget for military aid to Kyiv next year.

Other European leaders also showed their support, with the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell saying that Ukraine’s “existential fight” was also “existential for the EU”.

“Dear Ukrainians... the day approaches when we welcome you in the EU,” European Council President Charles Michel wrote on X.

Widespread reports of young conscripts going missing in Kursk have filled the Russian Internet in recent days. 

Moscow released images of young-looking men on a bus, saying it freed 115 servicemen “taken prisoner in the Kursk region”.

Russia said the troops were currently in Belarus and will be brought to Russia soon. 

At Kyiv’s Sofia Square in front of St Michael’s Cathedral, Zelensky said a new law banning the Russian-linked church “protects Ukrainian Orthodoxy from Moscow’s dependence”. 

BEIJING — Eleven people have been killed and 14 more are missing after heavy rain in recent days lashed China’s northeastern province of Liaoning, state broadcaster CCTV reported Friday.

China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with deadly torrential rains and scorching heat waves.

The world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense declared July the hottest month in China since records began six decades ago.

In Liaoning, heavy rainfall over several days this week disrupted travel and hindered emergency response efforts.

The inundation forced tens of thousands of people in areas administered by the coastal district of Huludao to evacuate, with officials launching an “all-out search” for missing persons, according to CCTV.

“This round of heavy rainfall caused extremely serious damage to Huludao City, especially Jianchang County and Suizhong County. Roads, electricity, communications, houses, crops, etc. were severely affected,” CCTV reported on Friday night, citing a press conference in Huludao.

“After several rounds of checking households and persons, it was found that the disaster has caused 10 deaths with 14 people missing,” the state broadcaster said, adding that an official also died “while saving people”.

State media had reported Thursday that over 50,000 people in Huludao fell under evacuation orders due to the heavy rains.

Pictures published by state news agency Xinhua on Friday showed people in Huludao wading through water to higher ground, guided by emergency response personnel donning bright red vests and helmets.