Russia carried out new raids on Ukraine and, according to reports, during the night between yesterday and today, Thursday 30 July, violated Polish airspace. “During the massive Russian missile attack on western Ukraine there was a violation of Polish airspace,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X. “I have therefore convened the coordination team with the participation of the Minister of Defence and the relevant services, who for many hours have been working at the incident site and are systematically providing me with information about all the circumstances.”
Russian missile crashed in Poland
Warsaw confirms that a missile that fell in eastern Poland during the night was most likely a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, and reports that a second Russian missile was considered a potential risk to the country’s security. An F-16 was scrambled to follow one of the two projectiles, which crossed the border at 03:40 local time and disappeared from radar six minutes later, with the aircraft observing the missile impact in an uninhabited area about 75 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, in the Lublin province, not far from Lublin, where President Volodymyr Zelensky met Prime Minister Donald Tusk yesterday.
Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Poland is in regular contact with NATO allies about the incident. Overnight, Moscow launched around 20–22 Kh-101 cruise missiles at Ukraine as part of another large-scale raid. Two missiles were identified by Polish forces as possible threats to local security, General Ireneusz Nowak, Inspector General of the Polish Air Forces, specified. The missile that fell near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia created a crater about ten metres in diameter, two kilometres from the nearest inhabited settlement.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it had carried out a “massive strike using long-range precision weapons from land, air and sea,” as well as attack drones against military targets across Ukraine, according to a statement published Thursday on Telegram. The Polish military said the country’s air defences detected at least a dozen missiles over western Ukraine that posed a potential threat to Polish airspace. It is not yet clear whether the unidentified object that fell in Poland was a Russian missile. However, any potential Russian strike reaching deep into the territory of a NATO member state would risk being seen as an escalation in the war Moscow has waged against Ukraine for years.
The Operational Command of the Armed Forces (Dorsz) earlier reported that an unidentified object was detected in Polish airspace around 03:40. An F-16 was urgently scrambled to identify and intercept it. Around 03:46 the object disappeared from radar, after which Dorsz deployed an Mi-24 helicopter to check the object’s last recorded location. Dorsz also stated that “the helicopter crew located the probable crash site in an unbuilt area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia, in Lublin province.” It was most likely one of the Russian cruise missiles.
The Russian attack in Ukraine
Meanwhile, during the night Russia carried out heavy raids on Ukraine. Moscow killed at least six people in central Ukraine, including two girls, the head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration said, though the toll has since risen.
“In a village on the outskirts of Kryvyi Rih, a direct strike with an Iskander‐M ballistic missile, launched from the Voronezh region, hit a private home where a large family lived, killing two girls aged 5 and 12 and four adults,” Oleksandr Vilkul reported. He added that eight other people were injured and that the death toll could increase.
Authorities later said that “Russian attacks have killed at least eight people and injured more than a dozen others in various areas of Ukraine,” warning that “the casualty figures could rise.” Officials in the eastern Poltava region said one person was killed in a drone strike on a warehouse, while at least 15 people were injured in attacks on the western city of Lviv.
The Kyiv city military administration confirmed one death and two injuries in the capital. Another five people were reported injured in attacks in an eastern district of Kyiv.
Zelensky: “Allies, give us more missiles”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged allies to supply more anti‐ballistic missiles: “This Russian terrorist act once again demonstrates that protection from the Russian missile threat is the most important thing,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine faces a “serious shortage of air defence missiles from our partners.” On Tuesday Zelensky met at the White House with US President Donald Trump and discussed the possibility of Ukraine producing interceptors domestically for Patriot systems.
Read also