India, July 31 -- A Russian ballistic missile and drone barrage across Ukraine overnight into Thursday killed at least eight civilians, including children, and wounded dozens of others, officials said.

The blitz expanded Russia's almost daily bombardment of Ukrainian cities as Moscow apparently looked to exploit Kyiv's critical shortage of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defences. NATO member Poland, meanwhile, was looking into Ukrainian reports that a Russian cruise missile entered its airspace during the onslaught.

The barrage spanned regions across Ukraine, including areas by the border with Poland that are far from the front line in the east of the country and where Ukraine is believed to store and manufacture weapons for it...