Tusk says Polish air defense would have shot down Russian missile if it had flown further, while Kosiniak-Kamysz said it had been "extremely difficult" night
Polish air defense forces were ready to shoot down the Russian missile that entered the Lublin Voivodeship if it had continued moving deeper into the country.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk made this statement on Thursday during a meeting of the crisis management team in Lublin, according to Censor.NET, citing the office of the Polish prime minister.
What does Tusk say?
"We were ready to shoot down the missile if it had continued its flight," Tusk assured.
Probable crash site of the Russian missile in Poland
It should be noted that the missile fell near the village of Tarnava-Kolonia in the Lublin Voivodeship.
A Challenge for Air Defense
Meanwhile, Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz described the night as "extremely difficult" for Poland's air defense forces.
"An extremely difficult night for our air defense, surveillance, and threat detection systems. I would like to thank General I. Novak and the Operational Command of the Armed Forces, as well as everyone who today coordinated, monitored, analyzed, and responded to the events over Ukraine and in our airspace. Information was promptly transmitted and coordinated by the relevant services and also reached the top leadership of our state. An investigation is currently underway to determine exactly what object crashed in the area of the village of Tarnava-Kolonia," he wrote on the social media platform X.
What led up to this?
- On the night of July 30, 2026, Russia launched yet another massive attack on Ukraine, using missiles and strike drones. Hits, destruction, and fires were reported in a number of regions.
- Russian troops attacked Lviv, Kyiv, and the Dnipropetrovsk region.
- On the night of July 30, Poland put its air defense forces on alert and scrambled military aircraft in response to a massive Russian missile strike on Ukraine.
- It was reported that at around 3:50 a.m. local time, air raid sirens sounded in Lublin due to the threat of an air strike.
- It later emerged that a crater and debris from an unidentified object had been discovered in Poland following a nighttime attack by the Russian Federation on Ukraine.
