Missile crashes in Poland during Russian attack on Ukraine

"All indications are that it was a Russian Kh-101 ballistic missile, but we want to be 100% certain about the type of missile and who launched it," said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The Kh-101, about 20 of which were launched against Ukraine tonight, is actually a subsonic cruiser model.

The artifact fell at around 3:40 am (10:40 pm on Wednesday, 29, in Brasília) in an open field in the Lublin region, in eastern Poland. The nearest houses are about 2 km from the impact area, which left a crater 10 m in diameter.

The incident is one of the most serious involving Ukraine's neighbors to the west, almost all of which are members of NATO, such as Poland. The command of the US-led military alliance said the violation of airspace was unacceptable and promised to reinforce defense measures.

During the attack, which according to Kiev involved 284 drones and 74 various missiles, Warsaw put four F-16 fighters into the air to shoot down any intruders.

In the case of the missile that crashed, it was monitored, but as the region about 80 km from the Ukrainian border was uninhabited, no ammunition was used.

In September last year, Poland was also the subject of the most serious violation of NATO airspace of the war, when 21 Russian drones entered the country, forcing shootdowns. Moscow denied intentionality, but the trajectory of the devices indicated that they had been launched to test the country's defenses.

Romania has also recorded several drone incursions, including injuries in one case this year. In this Thursday's episode, Tusk stated that "there is no reason to believe that Poland was a target."

The Russian action this Thursday was not the biggest, but the concentration of missiles against Kiev scared Volodymir Zelensky's government, which had issued several warnings. The smaller number of drones also suggests the degradation of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses, as the president had warned.

Without needing to saturate them with many hundreds of drones, the Russians launched a large number of cruise and ballistic missiles, of which 55 were shot down according to Kiev.

In the capital, a record number of people sought shelter in the local subway, according to the city hall: 56 thousand of the 3 million residents. There were 8 deaths resulting from attacks across the country, 6 of them in Krivii Rih, Zelenski's homeland. In Lviv, a city close to the border with Poland, at least 26 residents were injured in the impact of missiles.

The Russians also announced a land advance in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumi, with the capture of four villages to form what Moscow calls a border security zone.

The area is not officially claimed by Putin, nor was it illegally annexed like four others in 2022, but the Kremlin still wants to establish control to create a buffer between the two countries.

On the contrary, Kiev again attacked several Russian regions with drones. A grain export port in the Kertch Strait, next to the Black Sea, was hit, as was another distribution center for online retail giant Wildberries. The unit, in Perm, continues to operate according to the company.