NATO member Poland scrambled fighter jets to protect its airspace as Russia launched a wave of missile and drone strikes that killed at least eight people across neighbouring Ukraine, including one person in the capital Kyiv, and reached as far west as the city of Lviv, according to reports.
"Overnight, a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into Poland as part of Russia's massive strike against Ukraine, violating NATO airspace," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
"This is yet another clear demonstration that strengthening Ukraine's air defence now is urgent and serves as a guarantee for the protection of the entire Euro-Atlantic community," he added.
Polish authorities have not confirmed the nature of the object, saying only that an investigation is ongoing, the Reuters news agency reported.
The Operational Command of Poland's Armed Forces said an unidentified object moving westward was detected in Polish airspace at 3:40 a.m. local time.
An F-16 fighter jet was scrambled to intercept and identify it, but the object disappeared from radar screens before it could be positively identified, the Operational Command said.
An Mi-24 helicopter dispatched to verify the radar data later located what the military described as the probable crash site in an uninhabited area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the eastern Lubelskie region.
"The helicopter crew located the probable crash site of the object in an undeveloped area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia," the military said.
The interior ministry said the impact left a crater about 10 metres wide.
Police in the Lubelskie region said officers responding to reports of a loud explosion in Biłgoraj County found a crater and scattered fragments of an unidentified object in a field about 2 kilometres from the nearest buildings, between the villages of Tarnawa-Kolonia and Tokary.
Air raid sirens sounded briefly in the regional capital Lublin because of the Russian attacks on neighbouring Ukraine.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk travelled to the area and said he had convened a coordination team including Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and senior security officials following what he said was a violation of Polish airspace during Russia's overnight missile barrage against western Ukraine.
Source: Reuters, IAR, PAP, polskieradio24.pl