Polish Prime Minister: "A Russian missile fell on the country's territory"
The object that fell in a field in the east of the country is likely a Russian missile, following an incident where a cruise missile penetrated NATO airspace during a widespread attack in Ukraine. Poland scrambled a fighter jet and a helicopter to the area, and authorities have opened an official investigation.
A missile that fell in a field in eastern Poland overnight is likely a Russian missile, said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday. According to his statements at an emergency meeting, all indications show that it is a Russian Kh-101 missile, but the authorities want to "be 100 percent sure about the type of missile and who launched it."
The incident occurred against the backdrop of a widespread Russian aerial attack in neighboring Ukraine, which claimed the lives of at least eight people, including one in the capital, Kyiv, and spread as far as the western city of Lviv. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on the X network that a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed the border into Poland during the attack and violated NATO airspace.
The Polish military stated that an unidentified object moving westward was detected in Polish airspace and disappeared from radars shortly after being spotted at 3:40 AM local time. A Mi-24 helicopter scrambled to the last known location to verify radar data identified the possible crash site in an undeveloped area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the Lublin Voivodeship.
The Ministry of the Interior updated that the width of the crater was about 10 meters, and it was located in an agricultural area at a distance of about 2 kilometers from residential buildings. The Lublin Voivodeship Police stated that they received a report of a loud explosion in the Biłgoraj County, and officers discovered a crater and scattered debris from an unidentified object at the scene. Sirens sounded in Lublin due to possible Russian attacks.
