Poland believes it was a Russian missile
The publication “Wirtualna Polska”, citing a government source, states that the Polish government tends to believe that a Russian missile fell in the Lublin Voivodeship during the night.
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Ukraine responded
Reacting to the incident, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy A. Sybiha indicated that last night Russia launched 74 ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine. According to him, one of Russia’s cruise missiles “Kh-101” violated Polish and NATO airspace.
According to him, this shows that urgent strengthening of Ukraine’s air defense is in the security interest of the entire Euro-Atlantic community.
A spokesperson for the Polish Armed Forces operational command, Lieutenant Colonel Jacek Goryszewski, stated that one object entered Polish airspace.
“We have this information. According to our data, it was one object at this time, and we are not conducting any wider searches. Only this territory is secured. We also have no indications that there could be more such objects – neither from external sources nor from services,” he explained to the TVN24 television channel.
“There were two fighters in the air, but in Ukraine we observed at least a dozen objects. The closest object was 5 km from our border. As we have already reported, immediately after this object turned east in Ukraine, another object appeared on the recordings, and a fighter was immediately sent to identify it,” he said.
The Ukrainian monitoring channel “Monitorwar” shared on the Telegram platform a map showing the night Russian attack on Ukraine. It shows that one of Russia’s cruise missiles, launched from the Kursk region in Russia, flew across all of Ukraine and crossed the Poland-Ukraine border near Hrubieszów.
A more detailed map is provided by the “AMK Mapping” channel. It shows that the missile flew over Krasnystaw, where sirens sounded at night. The debris of the object likely fell in the Tarnawa Kolonia settlement in the Lublin Voivodeship.
Unidentified object recorded
On Thursday morning, it was reported that an unidentified object was recorded in Polish airspace during the night, and later a probable crash site was found in the Lublin Voivodeship, the Polish Armed Forces operational command reported on the social network “X” on Thursday.
It was indicated that to investigate the unidentified object, “an F-16 fighter on alert was directed to that area”.
Diameter – 10 meters
The news site “Lublin 112” reports that on Thursday morning a powerful explosion was heard near the town of Targowisko in the Lublin Voivodeship.
Firefighters, police, and a military helicopter arrived at the scene, and the country’s armed forces are also expected.
It is reported that the crater was found in a field surrounded by forests, about 50 km from Lublin and over 75 km from the border with Ukraine.
A spokesperson for the State Fire Service, Captain Tomasz Stachyra, indicated that the crater’s diameter is about 10 meters. Its origin is currently unclear.
In an interview with TVN24, the Lublin Voivodeship press representative Marcin Bubicza confirmed that the crater perimeter is secured.
“After 5 a.m., police officers found a crater and scattered parts of an unidentified object in a field between Tarnawa Kolonia and Tokary areas, about 2 km from buildings,” the officers reported.
“Was it a drone or a bomb?”
Local residents told journalists that the sound of the explosion was unlike anything they had heard before.
“We have lived here all our lives and have never heard anything like this. The windows almost shattered,” one resident told the local media outlet “Lublin 112”.
“Was it a drone or a bomb? People say it was some kind of missile,” another added.
“An extraordinarily difficult night”
“It was an extraordinarily difficult night for our air defense, surveillance, and threat detection systems,” wrote Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on the social network “X”.
He assured that information was continuously transmitted and coordinated by the relevant services, and also passed on to the country’s key figures.
“Thanks to General Nowak and the Armed Forces operational staff, everyone who today coordinated, monitored, analyzed, and responded to events over Ukraine and our airspace,” emphasized the defense minister.
“An investigation is currently underway into what type of object fell near Tarnawa Kolonia,” added W. Kosiniak-Kamysz.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that during the large-scale missile attack by Russia on western Ukraine, “Polish airspace was violated”.
A government spokesperson indicated that the country’s prime minister is currently traveling to the incident site.
Sirens sounded in Lublin and parts of the Lublin Voivodeship
On Thursday morning, officials reported that the country’s air defense systems monitored the activity of a dozen missiles flying over western Ukraine; due to their flight path, they could pose a potential threat to Polish airspace.
The Polish Armed Forces operational command reported that at about 3:40 a.m. local time (4:40 a.m. Lithuanian time), an unidentified object flying west was recorded in the country’s airspace.
Six minutes later, the object disappeared from radar screens, so the military sent a helicopter to the last known location.
“The helicopter crew identified, it is believed, the crash site of the object in an uninhabited area near Tarnawa Kolonia,” the statement added.
