A Russian cruise missile is believed to have crashed in Poland leaving a 10-metre crater.
An explosion was heard in a village near the eastern city of Lublin, 60 miles from the Ukrainian border on Thursday morning, with no casualties reported.
Polish fighter jets had been scrambled and sirens sounded after Russia’s heavy overnight bombardment, which saw 74 Russian missiles and 284 drones raining down across Ukraine, straying near the Nato border.
Poland’s army is investigating the incursion. Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, who travelled to the region on Thursday morning, said: “All the indications are that it was a Russian Kh-101 […] missile, but we want to be 100 per cent certain about the type of missile and who launched it.”
Mr Tusk said the air force could have shot down the cruise missile but chose to let it fall in the uninhabited area.
A crater has been found in a rural area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in Poland
If proven to be a Russian missile, it could mark a major escalation in the conflict and trigger emergency meetings under Nato’s article 4, which permits any member country to call a formal consultation if they feel under threat.
Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, said: “Last night, Russia launched a massive combined strike against Ukraine. During the attack, Polish airspace was also violated, underlining once again that Russia’s aggression is a threat to the security of Europe as a whole. My thoughts are with the victims of these attacks.
“The European Union stands in full solidarity with the Ukrainian and Polish authorities working tirelessly to protect and defend their citizens. We are stepping up our support to strengthen Ukraine’s air defence, including anti-missile and anti-drone capabilities. Europe will continue to stand united in the face of this aggression.”
The operational command of the Polish armed forces said on Thursday morning that at least 12 missiles had been observed over western Ukraine during a Russian attack on Lviv.
A woman cries after an apartment building in Lviv was hit by a Russian strike
Poland’s operational command said the missiles identified in Ukraine may have posed a threat to Polish airspace because of their flight path.
It added that an unidentified object moving westward was detected in Polish airspace, with an F-16 fighter jet sent to intercept it.
But the object disappeared from radar system indications before a definitive identification could be made.
An Mi-24 helicopter was sent to the probable crash site of the object in a rural area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the Lublin district, the force said.
A destroyed car at the site of a Russian missile strike in Kyiv – REUTERS
Lublin police dispatched counter-terrorism units, saying: “After 5am, police officers discovered a crater and scattered fragments of an unidentified object in a field between the towns of Tarnawa-Kolonia and Tokary, approximately 2km from any buildings.”
Residents were woken up to the sounds of a “loud bang” before finding a crater in a field surrounded by forests, Polish media said.
Nearby towns were woken by the sound of alarm sirens at around 4am local time.
Credit: Andriy Sadovyi/Telegram
Because of the rough terrain, authorities began investigating the area using quad bikes before finding the crater, Lublin 112 reported.
The area was then secured by police until the military arrived.
“I heard what sounded like a bang, a huge bang. The windows in the apartment shook. We all flew out,” a resident told Lublin 112, a local news outlet.
“We’ve never heard anything like this in all our lives. The windows almost blew out,” another resident said, while someone else described the quake as “like a bomb”.
In Lviv, more than 20 residential buildings were targeted in heavy Russian strikes – Ukrainian State Emergency Service
A Ukrainian defence missile struck a Polish border village in 2022, and cruise missiles have entered its airspace briefly.
Russia’s overnight strikes across Ukraine on Wednesday killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens more.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian forces killed a 6-year-old girl and boys aged 11 and 17 in a mass attack targeting civilian infrastructure, said Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the regional military administration.
In Lviv, more than 20 residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were targeted in heavy Russian strikes.
People take shelter in a metro station in Kyiv – OLEKSII FILIPPOV/AFP
Children were among the injured in the early-morning attack, Andrii Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, said.
Ballistic missiles also rained down on Kyiv, killing a 31-year-old man and wounding two others.
The missiles struck residential buildings, a market, a garage and storage facilities, officials said.
The attacks occurred shortly after Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, returned from the US, where he said Donald Trump had agreed to give Ukraine licences for Patriot air-defence missiles.
