A Russian missile crash in eastern Poland prompts PM’s confirmation
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that an object that plunged into a field near Tarnawa Kolonia early on Thursday was most likely a Russian Kh‑101 cruise missile, and that it was armed.
The missile left a crater 10 metres wide, just a short distance from the village and about 92 kilometres from Ukraine’s border, during a large Russian assault on Lviv, Kyiv and the area around Kryvyhi Rih.
Tusk said the evidence strongly pointed to the Kh‑101, based on recovered fragments and technical analysis collected at the crash site. Despite the missile’s destructive power, no casualties were reported in the incident.
The crash occurred at approximately 03:40 local time, as Polish forces detected the object on radar and dispatched an F‑16 fighter jet to intercept it. Minutes later the missile disappeared from radar, and a military helicopter was sent to investigate.
Air‑raid sirens were sounded in Lublin and the nearby town of Krasnystaw due to ongoing airstrikes in neighboring Ukraine. Residents reported hearing a loud bang at around 04:00, and police discovered the crater roughly an hour later.
Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak‑Kamysz noted that about 20 objects were observed around the airspace overnight, and pyrotechnical analysis was underway.
Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha earlier confirmed that a Russian Kh‑101 had crossed Polish airspace as part of a massive combined strike against Ukraine, violating NATO territory.
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, pledged that the alliance would take all necessary measures to defend its territory. The incident highlights the broader conflict’s potential spillover effects into Europe.
Tusk had met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Lublin the night before the crash, after Zelensky returned from talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.
A separate incident earlier this year saw two Polish farmers killed by a missile that landed just over the border from Ukraine. That launch was thought to have been a Ukrainian air‑defence missile, responding to a Russian attack.
At least eight people died and dozens were wounded across Ukraine in the same wave of attacks, which included six fatalities among a family in a village near Kryvyhi Rih. The event underscored the ongoing danger of cross‑border missile strikes in the region.
