NATO scrambled jets after 50 missiles and 500 drones rained down on Ukraine - with the blitz killing at least five and wounding children.

Four people died in Lviv - only 43 miles from Poland - as the city was left shrouded in smoke after suffering its worst attack of the war.

Poland's operational command said: "Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said "more than 50 missiles and 500 attack drones" were used in the bloody attacks which killed five people in total.

He said Vladimir Putin's forces pounded Ukraine with cruise missiles, Shahed drones and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

It marked the largest single combined missile, drone and aerial bomb onslaught from Russia on Ukraine since the start of the war in 2022.

Wartime leader Zelensky called for "more protection" in Ukrainian skies and a "unilateral ceasefire" to open the way to diplomacy.

He said: "America and Europe must act to make Putin stop."

Ukraine's emergency services said four people died and another four were injured in Lviv after Russia "terrorised the region with combined strikes for over five hours".

Emergency services launched desperate search operations to uncover civilians buried under rubble.

One six-year-old boy was found in a serious condition with a "traumatic brain injury" following the depraved assault.

Local media said 45 thunderous explosions rocked the western city, with one outlet saying amid the carnage: "In Lviv, it is just hell right now."

Power cuts also plunged Lviv into darkness - with the brutal Russian strikes targeting Ukrainian energy systems.

Meanwhile, a separate wave of Putin's hellish attacks in Zaporizhzhia killed at least one person and wounded 10 others.

Aerial strikes also targeted Odesa, Ivano-Frankivska, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad and Vinnytsia, Zelensky said.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi reported a series of explosions in his city, with "civilian facilities" and "residential buildings" hit.

“Another round of explosions can be heard in Lviv. Air defenses are active. Stay in a safe place!” he wrote.

Describing the barrage as a "massive enemy attack", Sadovyi told how the city's air defence systems first battled an army of Russian drones before a wave of missiles rained down.

He said: "After the Russian shelling, several fires are still burning in the city.

"It was a very difficult night. Let's hold on!"

According to monitoring channels, 12 Shahed drones were heading towards Lviv and encircling the city.

Eastern-flank Nato members are on high alert after Poland shot down suspected Russian drones in its airspace in September.

And drone sightings and air incursions, including in Copenhagen and Munich, have led to chaos in European aviation.

Lithuania's airport in Vilnius was closed for several hours overnight after reports of a balloons heading towards the airport on Saturday night.

According to flight tracking service Flightradar24, early on Sunday, commercial flights were using routings typically used when Poland's Lublin and Rzeszow airports near the border with Ukraine were closed.

All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts for several hours over Saturday night, with the most devastating strikes hitting the Lviv region.

Following the lethal strikes in Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said: "Apartment blocks and private houses were damaged, cars burned.

"Windows were blown out, yards wrecked."

The region also saw power cuts which left some 70,000 residents without electricity.

It comes after mad Vlad launched another brutal drone strike on a Ukrainian passenger train, injuring at least 30.

Emergency services rushed to Shotska, in Ukraine's Sumy region, after the "savage" attack, which left the carriage fiercely burning and ripped apart.

And last week, swarms of drones and a barrage of missiles were fired across several Ukrainian regions in one of the biggest attacks of the war so far.

Ukraine's military said that Russia had launched 595 drones and 48 missiles overnight and its air defences shot down 568 drones and 43 missiles.

Missiles flew over Kyiv - the worst hit city - as anti-aircraft fire rang out for several hours after the Russian forces launched the blitz.

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