Poland activated ground-based air defense systems, scrambled fighter jets and deployed a long-range radar aircraft overnight on July 30 in response to a massive Russian missile strike on Ukraine, the Polish armed forces' operational command said.
Polish air defense systems tracked at least 12 missiles that military officials assessed as posing a potential threat to the country's airspace. One missile approached within about 5 kilometers of Poland's border at 3:29 a.m. before changing course and heading east, the command said.
Eleven minutes later, Polish radars detected an unidentified object inside the country's airspace. An F-16 fighter was dispatched to intercept it, but the object disappeared from radar screens before identification was completed, the command reported. The object later crashed in Lublin province, and emergency services were dispatched to the scene. Police found a crater and fragments of the object in a field about two kilometers from residential buildings, Polish media reported. Local residents reported a powerful explosion.
Air raid sirens sounded for about ten minutes starting around 4 a.m. in Lublin and most towns in the province. Lublin province authorities confirmed the air threat was real, saying the information came from the government security center.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he convened a coordination group including the defense minister because of the airspace violation.
The Russian attack hit several regions of Ukraine. In Kyiv, missile debris fell, sparking fires and killing one person. In Lviv, two residential apartment buildings were damaged, injuring 15 people including a rescue service worker. In the village of Radushne near Kryvyi Rih, an Iskander-M ballistic missile struck a private home where a large family lived, killing six people including three children — a 6-year-old girl and boys aged 11 and 17. Eight more people, including two children aged 6 and 15, were wounded, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration said.