‘Provokes once again’: Nation blames Russia for drone crash
Poland has accused Russia of “provocation” after a 2am act from the superpower caused a huge explosion in farmland.
Poland has claimed a Russian military drone with a self-destruct warhead crashed and exploded in farmland in the country’s east, calling the move a “provocation” by Russia amid global efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
The drone crashed into a cornfield about 2am on Wednesday near the village of Osiny, about 100 kilometres southweast from Warsaw and near the borders with Ukraine and Russian-allied Belarus.
Polish general Dariusz Malinowski said the aircraft “was a decoy drone, which was not armed but carried a self-destruct warhead”.
Officials said there were no casualties but the windows of some nearby houses were blown out.
Police also recovered plastic debris and burnt metal from the site, Poland’s news agency PAP reported.
One local resident, Pawel Sudowski, said he was sitting in his room when he heard “something just bang”.
“It exploded so loudly that the whole house simply shook,” Mr Sudowski told local news website Lukow.tv.
The incident comes as the US and European nations continue to push for an end to Rusisa’s three-year war with Ukraine, with leaders meeting for a summit in Washington just days earlier.
“Once again, we are facing a provocation from the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone,” Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters.
The minister said it came at “a particular moment, where peace talks are underway, where there is hope that this war … has a chance to end.”
“Russia provokes once again,” he added.
Mr Kosiniak-Kamysz claimed “Russia has repeatedly violated NATO airspace, and this time Poland was the target”.
“We must expand the operational capabilities of the Polish Armed Forces and anti-drone systems.”
Poland has been a major supporter of Ukraine, hosts over a million Ukrainian refugees and is a key transit point for Western humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine.
In a post on X, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski condemned the “new violation of our airspace from the east”.
“The foreign ministry will protest to the perpetrator of this violation,” he wrote.
Russian drones and missiles have crossed into the airspace of NATO members Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania several times in the three and a half years since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.
Less than a ago, a Russian military drone flew into the Baltic state of Lithuania from Belarus.
The drone was spotted flying over parts of the capital Vilnius and was later found in a military training area. It had explosives on board that did not detonate.
The drone was believed to be a Russian drone model called Gerbera, which is often used as a decoy in multiple Russian drone and missile barrages against Ukraine.
Poland in 2023 said a Russian missile had crossed into its airspace to strike Ukraine.
In November 2022, two civilians were killed when a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile fell on a village near the border.
-With AFP
Originally published as ‘Provokes once again’: Nation blames Russia for drone crash
