Poland confirms downing of Russian Kh-101: Ukrainian pilot followed missile to border

Poland has officially confirmed that a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile fell on its territory during Russia’s latest massive attack on Ukraine. Warsaw does not rule out that the incident could have been a deliberate provocation, and warns of the risk of similar incidents recurring.

This was stated on TVN24 by Polish Deputy Minister of Defense Cezary Tomczyk.

According to him, during the last Russian missile strike, about 70 missiles were fired, of which about 20 were moving towards the Polish border. Most of them were destroyed by Ukrainian air defense forces while still over Ukrainian territory.

“Ukraine took on the entire burden of the blow,” Tomchyk emphasized.

Commenting on the possibility that Russia intentionally aimed the missile at Poland, Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk noted that at present neither version can be confirmed nor rejected.

“We don’t know. If we do, it will be mostly intelligence. The coming weeks will probably give us more answers,” he said.

At the same time, Tomczyk emphasized that Poland is preparing for the possible recurrence of similar incidents.

“We have no illusions. Such situations or such provocations may be repeated,” the official said.

Tomczyk also said that a Ukrainian military pilot escorted the Russian Kh-101 missile to the very end, which eventually violated Polish airspace and fell in the Lublin Voivodeship.

According to the deputy defense minister, the Ukrainian pilot was forced to stop the pursuit about 20 seconds before crossing the Polish border because he was not allowed to enter the airspace of a NATO member state. In addition, there was a risk that Polish F-16 fighters could mistakenly perceive the Ukrainian plane as a target.

In particular, the Polish Ministry of Defense emphasized that the situation once again demonstrated how close the fighting has come to NATO’s borders and how high the risks to the security of the region remain.

It was previously reported that after the massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine on July 30, a crater was discovered in the Lublin Voivodeship of Poland , which, according to preliminary data, could have been formed as a result of the fall of an unknown object. The incident occurred after an air alert was declared.

Subsequently, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that there was currently no reason to believe that the Russian missile was deliberately aimed at the country’s territory.

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