Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said the missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead, crashed in a field near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in Poland's eastern Lubelskie region after entering Polish airspace during Russia's latest missile barrage against Ukraine.
"I spoke with Operational Commander Gen. Ireneusz Nowak, and we can confirm with full responsibility that it was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, which exploded on impact with the ground," Tomczyk told broadcaster TVN24.
He described the missile as "potentially very dangerous" but said authorities still did not know whether it had entered Poland intentionally.
"All scenarios remain possible," Tomczyk said. "We simply do not know, and if we do find out, it will mainly come from intelligence information."
He told TVN24 that Russia typically launches 10 to 20 Kh-101 missiles in attacks on Ukraine but said about 70 missiles were fired overnight, with roughly 20 heading toward Poland around 3 a.m.
Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said there was no indication Poland had been the intended target.
He said military experts believed the recovered fragments and other evidence strongly pointed to a Russian Kh-101 missile, but cautioned that investigators had not yet reached a final conclusion.
Tusk also said Polish forces had been prepared to shoot down the missile if it had posed a direct threat to populated areas.
The Operational Command said an unidentified object was detected in Polish airspace at 3:40 a.m. local time.
An F-16 fighter jet was scrambled to intercept it, but the object disappeared from radar screens before it could be positively identified.
An Mi-24 helicopter later located the probable impact site near Tarnawa-Kolonia.
The missile struck an uninhabited area, leaving a crater but causing no casualties or property damage.
The District Prosecutor's Office in the regional capital Lublin, which is leading the investigation, said earlier on Thursday that the object was most likely a Kh-101 missile carrying a significant quantity of explosives.
Tomczyk thanked Polish troops, air force personnel and NATO allies who supported the operation.
Polish officials said allied reconnaissance aircraft and NATO aerial refuelling tankers operating from Germany assisted in monitoring Polish airspace during the incident, while Ukrainian fighter jets attempted to intercept incoming missiles before they reached the Polish border.
Deputy Defence Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said the United States had contacted Poland immediately after the incident and that US personnel were already at the crash site assisting Polish authorities with the investigation.
Foreign ministry spokesman Maciej Wewiór said Poland was analysing the incident together with its NATO allies and that any diplomatic response would be decided after investigators establish the technical details of the airspace violation.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Thursday that "a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into Poland" overnight, violating NATO airspace, as part of Russia's massive strike against Ukraine.
"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," Sybiha added.
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Source: IAR, PAP, polskieradio24.pl