{"id":611992,"date":"2026-07-30T17:01:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/611992\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T17:01:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:01:27","slug":"nato-says-it-will-defend-territory-after-russian-missile-crashes-in-poland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/611992\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bNato says it will \u2018defend territory\u2019 after Russian missile crashes in Poland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia <\/a>has been accused of violating Polish <\/a>airspace, after a missile exploded in a field in the east of the country, triggering Nato air defences<\/a>, in the midst of a large air raid that killed 13 people in neighbouring Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Polish authorities said that the explosion near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia, close to Lublin, had created a 10m-wide crater. Residents of Tarnawa-Kolonia reported hearing an explosion at about 4am that shook the windows of their homes, police said.<\/p>\n

Nato\u2019s <\/a>supreme \u2060allied commander for Europe, Gen Alexus Grynkewich, said: \u201c\u200bNato \u200bwill continue \u200bto take all necessary \u200bmeasures \u200cto defend Nato \u200bterritory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at the scene of the explosion, in a field about 50 miles from the Ukrainian border, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said the missile was most likely Russian. \u201cFrom the analysis of most of the traces, the recovered fragments point to a Russian KH-101 missile,\u201d he told journalists.<\/p>\n

He said there was no reason to think that Poland had been the target of the missile but said the Polish military had been prepared to shoot it down if it threatened a built-up area.<\/p>\n

As the attacks on Ukraine took place, Poland \u2013 a Nato member \u2013 scrambled fighter jets to protect its airspace, its armed forces said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in a post on X that a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile had crossed into Poland.<\/p>\n

\"PolishPolish prime minister Donald Tusk. Photograph: Wojtek Radwanski\/AFP\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Costa, the president of the EU council, said on X: \u201cLast night, Russia launched a large combined strike against Ukraine. During the attack, Polish airspace was also violated, underlining once again that Russia\u2019s aggression is a threat to the security of Europe as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ursula von der \u200bLeyen, the European Commission president, said the \u2060Russian missile incident \u2060in \u2060Poland was \u200banother \u201cunacceptable violation\u201d of the \u2060EU\u2019s airspace.<\/p>\n

At least 13 people in Ukraine \u2013 including one in Kyiv \u2013 died in Thursday\u2019s attacks, which extended as far \u2060as the western city of Lviv.<\/p>\n

A missile strike in the central city of Kryvyi Rih \u2013 Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s hometown \u2013 killed at least six people, including two girls, aged five and 12, the head of the town\u2019s military administration said. Zelenskyy had warned the country hours in advance of Moscow launching the large attack.<\/p>\n

Oleksandr Vilkul, the \u200chead of the defence council, said: \u201cIn a village on the outskirts of Kryvyi Rih, a direct strike by an Iskander-M ballistic missile, launched from Voronezh, hit a private house where a large family lived, killing girls aged five and 12 and four adults.\u201d Eight more people were wounded, he said.<\/p>\n

Another six people, including two children, were killed in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava.<\/p>\n

The military administration for Kyiv confirmed one death, with the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reporting fires in several districts. Earlier, he posted: \u201cThe enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic weapons. The threat of further attack remains present. Stay in shelters!\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u200cLviv, close to Poland, rescue workers were scrambling to clear rubble to reach those trapped after Russian missiles damaged two blocks of flats and injured 26 people, officials said.<\/p>\n

Late on Wednesday, Zelenskyy had posted: \u201cThe Russians prepared a large attack several days ago, and there is a high probability that the strike will be carried out tonight … Please, in all regions of Ukraine, pay attention to air raid alerts today and stay safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy also repeated his request to Ukraine\u2019s allies to supply Kyiv with the missiles its air defence system lacked. \u201cIt is important that our partners fully \u200bunderstand what is happening and that the protection of people\u2019s lives depends directly on their willingness, or lack of willingness, to provide air defence missiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s defence ministry, commenting on the strikes, said it had used land, sea and air-launched missiles, as well as strike drones, during the raid and claimed it had targeted military industrial facilities.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on Thursday, the \u2060Ukrainian military struck four Russian \u2060tankers \u200bin the Black Sea \u2060and the Sea of \u2060Azov, Ukraine\u2019s drone \u200bforces \u200ccommander, \u200cRobert Brovdi, said.<\/p>\n

Brovdi said on the Telegram app that 205 tankers \u2013 \u200b130 in the Sea of Azov \u2060and 75 \u200bin the \u200bBlack \u200bSea \u2013 had \u200bbeen \u200chit in the \u200bpast \u200bthree weeks. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia has been accused of violating Polish airspace, after a missile exploded in a field in the east…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,32303,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,379,550,7,8,2264],"class_list":["post-611992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-tusk","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-poland","tag-russia","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine-crisis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117010005361384001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}