A Ukrainian pilot escorted a Russian X-101 missile to the border with Poland
During a massive Russian attack on the night of July 30, a Ukrainian fighter jet tracked an X-101 cruise missile almost to the border with Poland, but was forced to cease pursuit approximately 20 seconds before the missile crossed the state border.
According to Tomchik, Poland has definitively confirmed that a Russian X-101 cruise missile entered its airspace.
The official said that around 3:00 a.m., approximately 20 Russian missiles were flying toward Poland. Most of them were destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses, but one missile could not be intercepted.
It was this specific target that the Ukrainian fighter jet escorted to the state border.
As Tomczyk explained, the pilot could not continue the pursuit after the missile entered Polish airspace, as there was a risk that his aircraft might be mistaken for a threat by Polish air defense forces or F-16 fighter jets.
“From the very beginning, the Polish Armed Forces monitored the entire course of events—everything that was happening in Ukraine. And that was precisely the task facing the military, the pilots, and those responsible for guiding these missiles,” emphasized Poland’s Deputy Minister of Defense.
He also thanked the military personnel who participated in monitoring the air situation and ensuring security.
Following the incident, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga held a telephone conversation with his Polish counterpart, Radosław Sikorski.
The Ukrainian side confirmed its readiness to provide all necessary assistance in investigating the circumstances of the violation of Poland’s airspace.
Earlier, it was also reported that the moment the Russian missile fell in the Lublin Voivodeship was captured on video, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that the Polish military was ready to shoot down the target if it had continued moving through the country’s territory.
This was reported by Polish Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk, according to RMF FM.
As a reminder, on the night of July 30, Russian forces carried out one of the largest combined attacks on Ukraine, using more than 70 missiles and over 280 attack drones. Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as the Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, came under fire.
In Poland, during the massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine on the night of July 30, an air raid alert was issued in part of the Lublin Voivodeship. After the alert ended, a crater approximately 10 meters in diameter and debris from an unidentified object were discovered in a field near the villages of Tarnava-Kolonia and Tokary.
