Two objects violated Polish airspace overnight during Russia’s large-scale attack on Ukraine. This was announced by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk while visiting the site where a missile fell in the Lublin Voivodeship.
“Ukrainian fighter jets tracked these missiles right up to the Polish border and tried to destroy them as they were heading toward the Polish border. There are no grounds to believe that Poland was the target, but two of these objects violated Polish airspace.
One — definitely — because we have evidence of it here, while the second was near the Polish border, but it was a very, very brief signal, so there were no consequences. The military was prepared to shoot down the missile if it had posed a direct threat to a populated area. Fortunately, it fell earlier, before the decision to shoot it down was made, in an uninhabited area,” he said.
It should be noted that earlier in the morning, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said that at 3:29 a.m. one object approached the Polish border to within 5 km before turning eastward. The second entered Polish airspace at 3:40 a.m. and disappeared from radar at 3:46 a.m. Later, a 10-metre-wide crater was discovered near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia.
“The investigation is proceeding very quickly, so, of course, we are not making any final determination yet, but according to military experts, the overwhelming majority of the evidence, including the recovered components, points to a Russian Kh-101 missile.
It is a cruise missile capable of carrying a large payload, of course, and it is highly likely that the explosion occurred here. The size of the crater, approximately 10 metres in diameter and up to 5 metres or even deeper, shows that this was a very serious incident.
I am in contact with most European leaders… The Americans are interested in taking part in the investigation. I have received expressions of solidarity and statements of full support and assistance from the prime ministers and presidents of the European Union, and not only the EU, but also from the Prime Minister of Norway, who also responded immediately. So we certainly will not be left to deal with this problem alone. And, of course, we will carefully examine every detail of Poland’s response,” Tusk said.
