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Russia has been accused of violating Polish airspace, after a missile exploded in a field in the east of the country, triggering Nato air defences, in the midst of a massive air raid that killed 13 people in neighbouring Ukraine.
Polish authorities said that the explosion near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia, close to Lublin, had created a 10-metre-wide crater. Residents of Tarnawa-Kolonia reported hearing an explosion at about 4am that shook the windows of their homes, police said.
Nato’s supreme allied commander for Europe, Gen Alexus Grynkewich, said: “Nato will continue to take all necessary measures to defend Nato territory.”
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, speaking at the scene of the explosion, in a field about 50 miles from the Ukrainian border, said the missile was most likely Russian. “From the analysis of most of the traces, the recovered fragments point to a Russian KH-101 missile,” he told journalists.
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.
As the attacks on Ukraine took place, Poland scrambled fighter jets to protect its airspace, its armed forces said.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in a post on X that a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile had crossed into Poland.
The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
António Costa, the president of the EU council, said on X: “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.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said the Russian missile incident in Poland was another “unacceptable violation” of the EU’s airspace.
At least 13 people in Ukraine – including one in Kyiv – died in Thursday’s attacks, which extended as far as the western city of Lviv.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia appeared to have used a North Korean missile in an attack near the central city of Kryvyi Rih, which local officials said killed six people, including two girls, aged five and 12.
“In Radushne, the Russians used a missile from North Korea for the first time in a long time – that is what preliminary data shows,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “The alliance of Moscow bastards with the mad regime in North Korea – for missiles, for the North Korean contingent here in Europe, on our borders, and for the killing of our Ukrainian children.”
Another six people, including two children, were killed in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava.
The military administration for Kyiv confirmed one death, with the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reporting fires in several districts. Earlier, he posted: “The enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic weapons. The threat of further attack remains present. Stay in shelters!”
In Lviv, 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.
Late on Wednesday, Zelenskyy had posted: “The Russians prepared a massive 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.”
Zelenskyy also repeated his request to Ukraine’s allies to supply Kyiv with the missiles its air defence system lacked. “It is important that our partners fully understand what is happening and that the protection of people’s lives depends directly on their willingness, or lack of willingness, to provide air defence missiles.”
Russia’s 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.
Elsewhere on Thursday, the Ukrainian military struck four Russian tankers in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, Ukraine’s drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said.
Brovdi said on the Telegram app that 205 tankers – 130 in the Sea of Azov and 75 in the Black Sea –had been hit in the past three weeks.
English (US) ·