Poland furious as missile from Russia strays across the border

Nato ally scrambles fighter jets after airspace violation in Moscow’s attack on Ukraine capital

Poland demanded an explanation from Russia yesterday after one of Moscow’s missiles strayed briefly into Polish airspace during a major missile attack on Ukraine, prompting the Nato member to scramble F-16 fighter jets.

It was Russia’s third big missile attack on Ukraine in the past four days, and the second to target the capital, Kyiv.

The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyi, said on the Telegram platform that critical infrastructure was hit, but he didn’t specify what precisely was struck. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Later, authorities said rescuers had put out a fire at a critical infrastructure facility in the Lviv region, which had been attacked with missiles and drones at night and in the morning.

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said Russia used cruise missiles launched from Tu-95MS strategic bombers. An air alert in the capital lasted for more than two hours as rockets entered Kyiv in groups from the north.

He said the attacks were launched from the Engels district in the Saratov region of Russia. According to preliminary data, there were no casualties or damage in the capital.

Armed Forces Operational Command of Poland said in a statement that there was a violation of Polish airspace at 4.23am by one of the cruise missiles launched by Russia against towns in western Ukraine.

The object entered near Oserdow, a village in an agricultural region near the border with Ukraine, and stayed in Polish airspace for 39 seconds, the statement said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Russia intended the missile to enter Poland’s airspace. Cruise missiles are able to change their trajectory to evade air defence systems.

Polish Defence Minister Wladysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said in a televised news conference that the Russian missile would have been shot down had there been any indication it was heading towards a target in Poland.

He said Polish authorities monitored the attack on Ukraine and were in contact with Ukrainian counterparts. Polish and Nato F-16s were activated as part of the strategic response.

He said the missile penetrated Polish airspace about a kilometre or two as Russia was targeting the region around Lviv in western Ukraine.

“As last night’s rocket attack on Ukraine was one of the most intense since the beginning of the Russian aggression, all the strategic procedures were launched on time and the object was monitored until it left the Polish airspace,” he said.

On the diplomatic front, the Polish foreign ministry said that it would “demand explanations from the Russian Federation in connection with another violation of the country’s airspace.”

“Above all, we call on the Russian Federation to stop the terrorist air attacks on the inhabitants and territory of Ukraine, end the war, and address the country’s internal problems,” the statement read.

Andrzej Szejna, a deputy foreign minister, said the foreign ministry intended to summon the Russian ambassador to Poland and hand him a protest note.

Henryk Zdyb, the head of the village of Oserdow, said told daily newspaper GazetaWyborcza that he saw the missile, saying it produced a whistling sound.

“I saw a rapidly moving object in the sky. It was illuminated and flying quite low over the border with Ukraine,” he said.

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, there have been a number of intrusions into Polish airspace, triggering worry in the European Union and Nato member state and reminding people of how close the war is.

“We have to come to terms with the fact that the war is taking place right next to us, and we are part of the confrontation between the West and Russia,” commentator Artur Bartkiewicz wrote in the Rzeczpospolita newspaper yesterday.

In 2022, two Poles were killed in a missile blast. Western officials blamed those deaths on a Ukrainian air defence missile that went astray, but also accused Russia of culpability because it started the war, with the Ukrainian missiles launched in self-defence.

On Saturday night, one person was killed and four others were wounded in a Ukrainian missile attack on Sevastopol on the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula, city governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said on his Telegram channel.

Meanwhile, Kyiv’s forces struck Russian vessels and military installations in annexed Crimea again yesterday morning. Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, also came under fire overnight, with 10 missiles downed, two people injured and several homes damaged.

“I saw a rapidly moving object in the sky. It was illuminated and flying quite low over the border with Ukraine”