WARSAW: Poland’s Operational Command has reported intrusion of a Russian missile on Friday, entering from and then back into Ukraine.
General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces in a statement said everything indicates that a Russian missile entered Polish airspace.
Maciej Klisz, operational commander of the Polish army said the missile remained in Polish airspace for three minutes.
Klisz added that fighter jets were sent to intercept it and shoot it down if necessary but the duration and the flight path allowed the missile to leave Polish territory.
He said Poland’s air defense system had been put on alert because of new wave of Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine.
Polish army further said it had also carried out a ground search in the area where the signal from the missile was lost.
Earlier, Polish operational command on social media platform X said in the morning, an unidentified aerial object breached the airspace of the Republic of Poland from the Ukraine border.
According to an announcement the country’s air defense system tracked its movement from the moment it crossed the border until the signal vanished.
It further stated that in accordance with the procedures, the operational commander of the armed forces mobilized the available forces.
Polish authorities have held emergency meetings after the development and Polish President Andrzej Duda has spoken to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on the incident.
A Ukrainian air defense missile fell in the Polish village of Przewodow in November 2022, near the border, killing two civilians.
