A suspected Russian missile crashed in eastern Poland on Thursday, as Moscow launched one of its largest overnight attacks on Ukraine, killing at least eight people, including children. The unidentified object struck an undeveloped area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in Poland's Lublin province, around 90 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Polish authorities reported hearing a powerful explosion after the object landed.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that initial evidence suggested the object was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, though investigators were still working to confirm its type and origin. Tusk emphasized that Poland had been prepared to intercept it, saying, 'We were ready to shoot it down.' Polish air defenses scrambled fighter jets, including F-16s and a NATO A330 refueling aircraft, in response to the incident.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also claimed that a Russian cruise missile had crossed into Polish airspace during the attack. Meanwhile, Russia launched more than 70 missiles and over 280 attack drones across Ukraine, causing widespread destruction in Kyiv and several other regions. Ukrainian forces intercepted more than 260 drones, but the barrage still resulted in significant damage and casualties.
The deadliest strike hit the Dnipropetrovsk region, where six people, including children, were killed. The incident in Poland has raised concerns about the potential escalation of the conflict, as NATO member states monitor the situation closely. Poland's Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed that about 20 objects were detected near Polish airspace overnight, and pyrotechnical analysis was underway to determine the identity of the object that crashed.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed its forces carried out a 'massive strike' with air, land, and sea-based weapons, targeting military sites across Ukraine. The Kh-101 missile, known by NATO as the AS-23 Kodiak, is a subsonic cruise missile frequently used in large-scale attacks against Ukraine. The missile's trajectory and the circumstances of its crash remain under investigation.