Poland investigates explosion after unidentified object falls near Lublin

An unidentified object fell and caused an explosion about 95 kilometers inside Polish territory on Thursday morning, local authorities reported. The incident occurred during a large-scale Russian long-range missile attack on Ukraine, CNN reports.

Earlier, Poland announced that it had scrambled fighter jets in response to the Russian attack on Ukraine, which hit large parts of the country, claimed the lives of at least 8 people, including children, and left several people trapped under rubble.

The object fell in an uninhabited area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the Lublin Voivodeship, the Polish Armed Forces announced. Police specified that residents reported a loud explosion.

"During the massive Russian missile attack on Western Ukraine, Polish airspace was violated," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a post on the social network X. He added that he had convened a team to gather information about the incident.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated on X that a Russian cruise missile had "entered Poland as part of Russia's massive strike against Ukraine." It is unclear whether Sybiha was referring specifically to the unidentified object that fell in Lublin.

Poland investigating whether it was a Russian missile

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Telegram on Thursday that it had carried out a "massive strike with high-precision long-range weapons from ground, air, and sea platforms," as well as with attack drones against military facilities in Ukraine.

The Polish army stated that the country's air defense had detected at least a dozen missiles over Western Ukraine that posed a potential threat to Polish airspace.

It is not yet clear whether the object that fell in Poland is a Russian missile. However, a potential Russian strike so deep into the territory of a NATO member state could be seen as an escalation in Moscow's years-long war against Ukraine.

The overnight Russian attack on Ukraine followed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to the White House on Tuesday, where he asked US President Donald Trump for additional air defense systems for his country.

According to Zelenskyy, in comments posted on Telegram on Thursday, the attack damaged or destroyed dozens of homes, businesses, and infrastructure facilities. He stated that Russia used over 70 missiles and more than 280 attack drones.

Ukraine managed to intercept over 260 drones, Zelenskyy said, describing this as a significant achievement against the backdrop of a "critical shortage of air defense missiles from our partners."

Zelenskyy visited Lublin the day before the incident

On his way home on Wednesday, Zelenskyy stopped in the Polish city of Lublin - not far from where the object fell the following day - for a meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The two leaders discussed "the results of Zelenskyy's visit to the US and the security of Poland, Ukraine, and all of Europe," Tusk said in a post on X.

Poland regularly scrambles fighter jets in response to Russian attacks on Western Ukraine, although they rarely enter Polish airspace.

In September of last year, NATO fighter jets shot down several Russian drones that violated Poland's airspace, labeling Moscow's actions as absolutely dangerous behavior.

In November 2022, two people died after a Ukrainian air defense missile accidentally fell in the Polish village of Przewodów, about 6.4 kilometers from the border.

A deadly month for Ukraine

The attacks come as Ukraine is experiencing its deadliest month in terms of civilian casualties since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

According to local authorities, at least one person died in the capital Kyiv, and another in the Poltava region in the central part of the country.

Videos posted on social media showed families taking shelter in crowded metro stations in Kyiv. Some people were sleeping on the floor under blankets or in small tents.

In the village of Radushne, near the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, parents and three children died after a ballistic missile turned their family home "into ruins," Zelenskyy reported. Two more children were pulled alive from the rubble, he added.