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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Poland has said that an object that crashed and exploded inside its territory was likely a Russian cruise missile.
Poland is a member of NATO, of which the charter's Article 5 clause deems an attack on one as an attack on all. Russian drones and missiles have entered NATO territory during the war in Ukraine and the latest incident continues to test the alliance's collective defense pledge.
Polish police said that the object crashed near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in Lublin province, leaving a 30-foot wide crater which was shared widely on social media.
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Poland’s Defense Minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said on Thursday that the object was "most likely" a Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile and that Warsaw was in contact with NATO members about the incident.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the weapon's crash site that everything points to the fact that it was a Russian Kh-101 missile, although there is no indication to suggest that Poland was deliberately attacked.
"I suspect it was an errant missile and that Poland will call for NATO Article 4 consultations, but Article 5—the mutual defense clause—seems a bit excessive at this time," Michael Williams, a NATO expert and associate professor of public administration and international affairs at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, told Newsweek.
"The allies will want to de-escalate the issue, as opposed to escalating it and broadening the war—especially given the uncertainty around the U.S. position vis-a-vis Russia’s war against Ukraine," he added.
Newsweek has contacted NATO and the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X the object was a KH-101 cruise missile which Moscow has regularly used to bombard Ukraine's cities, showing the need for additional air defenses for Ukraine.
Tusk posted on X that during Russia's missile attack on the west of Ukraine, Polish airspace was violated.
In a media briefing on Thursday, Ireneusz Nowak, the inspector of the Polish Air Force, said that Russia fired inside Ukraine overnight 20 to 22 Kh-101 missiles, two of which were identified as posing a potential threat to Poland’s territory.
Poland scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to follow one of the missiles and observed its crash in an uninhabited area.
A loud bang was reported in Biłgoraj county, between the villages of Tarnawa Kolonia and Biskupice, and debris and the crater were discovered in a field over a mile from the nearest buildings, Polish police said, cited by Reuters.
Polosh Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski warned on X against any attempts by Moscow to blame Ukraine for the incident. "To preempt Putinist disinformation, please read: Missiles (KH-101) are used exclusively by Russia's strategic aviation."
Strikes in Ukraine
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Poland’s army said its air defenses launched at least a dozen missiles over western Ukraine, near Polish airspace overnight Wednesday.
In Ukraine, Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv in attacks which consisted of at least 74 missiles and 284 drones across the country, according to Kyiv.
Ukraine said its air defenses intercepted 55 missiles and 65 of the drones launched by Moscow. There were strikes also in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv and the wider Kyiv region.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced it had launched strikes with "long-range precision weapons from land, air, and sea" as well as attack drones on military sites across Ukraine.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson, Yannick Demoustier and John Feng.
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