Poland says likely Russian rocket entered and left Polish air space
Poland, a member of the Nato alliance, has said that a Russian missile appears likely to have entered the Polish airspace after an unidentified aerial object was detected on Friday morning in eastern part of Poland, bordering Ukraine.
The incident coincided with what Ukrainian authorities have called Russia's biggest air strikes launched on Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. At least 30 people were killed and around 160 injured in the attacks which targeted Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv and Lviv, the latter being the closest Ukrainian city to Lubelskie province in Poland.
Krzysztof Komorski, the governor of Lubelskie province which borders Ukraine, told PAP on Friday morning that "We have received information that an unidentified object appeared on the radar near Hrubieszow and then disappeared."
Then on Friday before 11am, Poland's Armed Forces Operational Command (RSZ) wrote on the X platform: "In the morning hours, an unidentified aerial object flew into the airspace of the Republic of Poland from the side of the border with Ukraine, which from the moment it crossed the border until the point where the signal disappeared was observed by the radiolocation means of the country's air defence system."
Jacek Goryszewski, the spokesman for the Operational Command of the Armed Forces told private broadcaster TVN24 that the unidentified object flew into Polish airspace from the Ukrainian side near the city of Zamosc. He said the situation can be linked to Russia's massive missile attack on Ukraine on Friday night.
Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the deputy prime minister and the defence minister, has addressed the situation on the X platform. "Through the BBN (the National Security Council - PAP), I am in contact with the president, the prime minister, the chief of general staff and the RSZ Operational Commander. The state is acting!" he wrote.
Later on Friday, Goryszewski told reporters that "intensive work is underway to determine the cause and the flight path of the object. "We are examining both the records from our radiolocation systems, they will be analysed in detail and, of course, presented to our superiors," he said. Goryszewski reported that more than 20 soldiers were involved in the ground search for signal loss "so that all scenarios are examined in detail."
About 200 police officers were also involved in the search in Lubelskie province, local police said on Friday afternoon.
At noon, Prime Minister Donald Tusk held a briefing with Wieslaw Kukula, the chief of the general staff of the Polish Army, Maciej Klisz, the RSZ operational commander, Defence Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz, and the heads of the security and intelligence agencies.
"After the meeting with the commanders of the Polish Army and the heads of the services, I spoke with the President of Poland. We are all working together for the security of Poland," Tusk wrote on the X platform.
At 1pm President Andrzej Duda called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council (BBN), attended by Kukula, Klisz and Kosiniak-Kamysz.
Kukula told a press briefing after the BBN meeting that "all indications show that a Russian missile entered and left Poland's air space."
We were tracing it with radars, it also left the air space; we have confirmed it with radars and with Allies."
Kukula said that forces have been sent to verify radar traces on the ground "to make sure there was no technical mistake."
General Maciej Klisz, operational commander of Polish armed forces said that the Russian attack by long-range aviation on Ukrainian territory was not a surprise.
"We had both national and ally aircraft in the air," he said. "As a result, the entire development of the situation was monitored by the operational command since yesterday night."
Klisz said that he immediately activated the air search system and requested Wieslaw Kukula, the chief of the general staff, to activate the ground search systems.
He added that the missile "was tracked along its entire flight path" and that about 40 kilometers of Poland's airspace had been breached.
Klisz said the object left Polish airspace after spending less than three minutes over the country's territory and then turned back into Ukrainian airspace.
Later on Friday, President Andrzej Duda held a telephone conversation on the incident with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, said head of the President's Office, Marcin Mastalerek.
"We have been in constant contact with our allies from the beginning," he added.
In a statement sent in response to a question from PAP, the US State Department spokesman said, that the US was aware of the incident and remained in contact with the Polish authorities regarding a missile incursion into Poland's airspace.
He added that the US treats Nato security very seriously and continues its commitment to defend Nato allies.
Asked whether the US could confirm the Russian origin of the missile, the Pentagon's press officer refused to comment and recommended to contact the Polish authorities.
Poland’s defence minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, told reporters that the state authorities were taking action to ensure the safety of Poles after the airspace incident.
"All organs of the state are cooperating and taking appropriate action," he said. "This is our most important issue - to ensure the security of both Poland and Poles."
Kosiniak-Kamysz added that the important thing right now was the cooperation between the president, the government and the armed forces.
"Collaboration, verification, information, ensuring security. These are priorities for us," he said.
In November 2022, a stray missile, believed to be a Ukrainian air-defence rocket, crashed near a Polish village of Przewodow, close to the Ukrainian border, killing two people.
In another incident, an unarmed missile, believed to be Russian, crashed in a forest near the central city of Bydgoszcz at the end of 2022 but was only discovered a few months later, prompting questions as to why it had taken so long to find it, and just when the then government had been informed about it. (PAP)
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