Russian Missile Crashes in Poland, NATO Scrambles Jets

A Russian missile entered Polish airspace and crashed near the border with Ukraine early Thursday, prompting NATO to activate air and ground defenses. Two Polish F-16s, a NATO A330 refueling aircraft, a Polish Saab 340 early warning plane, and a Polish Mi-24 helicopter scrambled in response, US Army Col. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesperson for NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, told Business Insider.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the crash site near Tarnawa-Kolonia in southwestern Poland that military assessments indicate the weapon was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. The crater measured 10 meters wide and 5 meters deep, consistent with the missile's explosive payload, Tusk added.

The Kh-101, known by NATO as the AS-23 Kodiak, is an air-launched cruise missile that Russia frequently uses in large-scale attacks. Russia launched over 60 Kh-101s as part of an overnight barrage, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Ukrainian fighter jets tracked and attempted to destroy Russian missiles up to the border, Tusk said. Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's foreign minister, said a Kh-101 violated NATO airspace during the attack.

Polish radars detected at least a dozen missiles above western Ukraine earlier Thursday. One object came within a few miles of the border around 3:30 a.m. local time before changing direction eastward. At 3:40 a.m., an unidentified object was detected inside Polish airspace heading west. It disappeared from radar six minutes later before identification, the Polish military said. The probable crash site sits about 60 miles from the Ukrainian border.