Poland is investigating an object, believed to be a Russian cruise missile, that landed and exploded roughly 90 kilometers inside its territory early Thursday, President Donald Tusk said, amid one of the largest Russian aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks.
Polish police found a crater about 10 meters wide and scattered debris in a field near the village of Tarnawa Kolonia, in the Lublin region, roughly 100 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. The unidentified object had disappeared from Polish military radar systems that had been tracking it after it entered domestic airspace, according to officials.
Tusk told an emergency government meeting that all indications suggest the object was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, though he stressed that Poland does not yet have complete certainty on the exact type of weapon or who fired it. “We were prepared to shoot down the missile if it had continued its flight,” Tusk said, adding that Poland wants to be 100 percent certain about the missile’s identity and origin before drawing final conclusions.
Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said an investigation had begun into the object, and that pyrotechnical analysis was underway to help determine exactly what fell near Tarnawa Kolonia. Kosiniak-Kamysz said roughly 20 objects had been detected near Polish airspace overnight during the wider Russian bombardment of Ukraine. Ukraine has offered to send its own specialists to assist Polish investigators, given Kyiv’s extensive experience analyzing downed Russian missiles and drones.
There were no reports of casualties from the incident, and Tusk said after visiting the crater site that there was no reason to believe Poland had been the intended target of the strike. Still, the episode marks the latest in a series of incursions and near misses along NATO’s eastern flank since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, incidents that have repeatedly tested the alliance’s collective defense commitments without so far triggering a formal Article 4 consultation in this case.
The missile appears to have gone astray during a massive overnight Russian attack on Ukraine involving more than 70 missiles and roughly 280 drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the barrage as one of the largest aerial assaults his country has faced in recent weeks. Russian strikes in that attack killed at least eight people in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials, with damage reported as far west as the city of Lviv.
Poland has previously reported Russian drones and debris crossing into its territory during large scale strikes on Ukraine, prompting recurring warnings from Warsaw and NATO allies about the risks posed by Russia’s continued bombardment campaign to countries along the alliance’s eastern border. Thursday’s incident is expected to further fuel discussion within NATO about strengthening air defense coordination near the Ukrainian border.
Sources: CNN, Notes from Poland, The Moscow Times
Author: Pulse Of Nations Wire Desk
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