Poland says Russian missile entered airspace then went into Ukraine

[CharlieH]

 

Poland's armed forces chief believes a Russian missile entered Poland for almost three minutes and then turned back into Ukrainian airspace.

Gen Wieslaw Kukula said the missile travelled about 40km (25 miles) into Polish airspace early on Friday.

The alert coincided with what Ukraine has called Russia's biggest day of air strikes since its war began.

President Andrzej Duda convened an emergency security meeting after the object was picked up on radar.

About 200 police officers have been conducting a search of the area where the object was detected in case the missile landed on Polish territory.

Poland is a member of the Nato alliance, and Polish and Allied aircraft were scrambled in response to the incident at around 07:00 (06:00 GMT) on Friday. There have been no reports of an explosion.

 

Operational Command spokesman Lt Col Jacek Goryszewski said an unidentified object had entered Poland from Ukraine near the town of Zamosc, in the Lublin region of south-eastern Poland, not far from the border.

He told private broadcaster TVN24 the event may be linked with Russia's missile and drone attack against some of Ukraine's biggest cities.

At least 30 people were killed in the attacks which targeted Lviv, the closest Ukrainian city to Lublin region, as well as Dnipro, Kyiv and other cities.

The Polish military was tracking the Russian missile strikes during the night. Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance stood in solidarity with Poland and "remains vigilant".

An unconfirmed report said a search was taking place near the town of Hrubieszow.

The Polish government has not ruled out Russian provocation. "We need to check whether this wasn't a provocation or a test of our reaction. We should check both scenarios carefully," Deputy Defence Minister Stanislaw Wziatek told TVN24.

 

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