Missile that left crater in Poland was probably Russian – Polish PM Tusk

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the object that crashed in a field in eastern Poland on Thursday morning was probably a Russian missile.

The unidentified object left a 10-meter-wide (33-foot) crater in the village of Tarnava Kolonia, 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, after a Russian attack on the city of Lviv.

“All indications are that it was a Russian Kh-101 ballistic missile, but we want to be 100% sure about the type of missile and who launched it,” Tusk said at a specially convened meeting in nearby Lublin.

Ukraine’s Acting Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha said earlier on Thursday that a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile “violated NATO airspace and crossed into Poland as part of Russia’s massive offensive against Ukraine.”

Tusk said he had been in contact with other European leaders before heading to the scene of Thursday’s incident.

They said there were no casualties in Thursday’s accident, but it is being treated as a serious condition. It was not an immediate threat because it did not land in a manned area, Tusk added, adding, “If we continue the flight, we are ready to shoot.”

In the year

In November 2022, two Polish farmers were killed by a cross-border missile from Ukraine, believed to be a Ukrainian air defense missile in response to a Russian attack.

Defense Minister Władysław Kośniak-Kamisz said overnight about 20 objects were seen near Polish airspace and a pyrotechnical analysis was underway to determine the identity of the object that fell near Tarnawa Colony.

The Polish military detected the object around 03:40 (01:40 GMT) on Thursday and sent an F-16 fighter jet to intercept it before it disappeared from radar systems minutes later. A military helicopter was then dispatched to search the area.

Air raid sirens blared in Lublin and Krasnodar after Russian airstrikes in neighboring Ukraine killed eight people. Residents of Tarnawa Colony said they heard a loud noise around 04:00 and the police found the accident site an hour later.

Polish leader Volodymyr Zelensky met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Lublin on his way back from talks with US President Donald Trump.