Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that an object which crashed into a field in eastern Poland during the early hours of Thursday was likely a Russian missile, possibly a Kh-101.
The unidentified object struck near the village of Tarnawa Kolonia, creating a crater approximately 10 meters wide, located roughly 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. This incident coincided with a Russian military offensive targeting the nearby city of Lviv.
“All available evidence suggests this was a Russian Kh-101 missile, though we are conducting further analysis to confirm both its origin and the party responsible,” Tusk stated during an emergency meeting held in Lublin.
Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha had earlier reported that a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into Polish territory amid what he described as “Russia’s large-scale attack on Ukraine,” thereby violating NATO airspace.
Tusk noted that he had been coordinating with other European leaders before traveling to the crash site.
No casualties were reported following the incident, according to Tusk. He emphasized that there posed no immediate danger since the missile did not land in a populated area and added, “We were prepared to intercept it had it continued flying toward civilian zones.”
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several Russian drones and at least one unarmed missile have entered Polish airspace. In a tragic event in November 2022, two Polish farmers lost their lives when a missile struck just across the border from Ukraine — later believed to be a Ukrainian air defense system responding to a Russian assault.
Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz revealed that around 20 airborne objects were tracked near Polish borders overnight, with explosive ordnance disposal units investigating the exact nature of the device that fell near Tarnawa Kolonia.
Military radar detected the object at approximately 03:40 local time (01:40 GMT), prompting the deployment of an F-16 fighter jet to escort it until it vanished from radar displays minutes later. Subsequently, a military helicopter was dispatched to survey the crash location.
Air raid sirens sounded in Lublin and the nearby town of Krasnystaw due to ongoing Russian airstrikes that resulted in eight fatalities across western Ukraine. Local residents in Tarnawa Kolonia reported hearing a loud explosion around 04:00, and authorities discovered the wreckage about an hour later.
Prior to these developments, Prime Minister Tusk met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Lublin the night before, as Zelenskyy was en route back from discussions with former U.S. President Donald Trump.