Polish prime minister says Russian missile may have landed on Polish territory

Polish authorities reported that a Russian missile may have landed in the southeastern part of the country during an overnight strike on western Ukraine, raising the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. Prime Minister Donald Tusk told an emergency meeting that the weapon appeared to be a Russian Kh-101 missile, although the Kh-101 is a cruise missile rather than a ballistic type. He added that no injuries were reported at the impact site, located about 50 kilometers south of Lublin, where he had met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the previous day, and that Polish forces were prepared to intercept the missile if it continued its flight.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha posted on social media that a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile had crossed into Poland, without confirming whether it struck the ground. NATO officials did not immediately respond to inquiries.

Polish military statements said an unidentified object entered Polish airspace around 3:29 a.m. local time and then altered its course eastward. Ten minutes later, radar detected another unidentified object over Poland; an F-16 fighter was scrambled but the object vanished before interception. A helicopter crew later found a 10-meter crater and debris near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in Lublin province, which the military described as the probable crash site.

Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on social media that the nature and origin of the object remained unclear and called the night “extremely tough” for Poland’s air-defence and detection systems. Russian missiles have previously entered Polish airspace during attacks on neighboring Ukraine, but none have struck Polish territory before.