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What happened on 3 September 2025 overnight?
Summary
A look back at a Russian barrage that reached western and central Ukraine and put Poland's air defences on alert.
What did the night of 3 September 2025 bring for Ukraine and its western neighbour? Russia fired more than 500 drones and two dozen missiles at Ukraine overnight, aiming mostly at western and central regions. At least five people were wounded.
The scale of the attack drew in Poland. In response, Warsaw scrambled its fighter jets and placed ground-based air defences and radar systems on maximum readiness.
A week of heavy strikes
The barrage came days after another large assault. On 28 August 2025, Russian forces launched nearly 600 drones and more than 30 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv. The strikes hit multiple residential areas, killing 25 people, including four children, and wounding 63 others, among them 11 children.
The same day, the Ukrainian spy ship Simferopol was sunk by a drone strike in the Danube river. Two people were killed, and several others were missing or injured.
What the night showed
Taken together, the events of those days were a run of large-scale attacks: on the capital, on a vessel on the Danube, and then on the west and centre of the country. The overnight strikes on 3 September 2025 were notable for the response they triggered in Poland, which raised the readiness of its fighter and ground-based defences as the attack unfolded.
