WARSAW:A Russian missile briefly crossed into Poland’s airspace on Friday (Dec 29) as part of a massive aerial assault on Ukraine, the Polish Army said. The missile was redirected towards Ukraine after entering Poland for three minutes, according to General Wieslaw Kukula, the chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces. “Polish and allied radars confirmed that a Russian missile violated our airspace. It also exited our airspace shortly after,” Kukula told reporters.
The Polish Army raised its defence readiness in response to the missile intrusion. Jacek Goryszewski, the armed forces spokesman, said that fighter jets were deployed to intercept and shoot down the missile if possible, but the missile’s flight path and duration prevented that. Maciej Klisz, the operational commander of the Polish army, said that the Polish air defence systems were alerted as soon as Russia launched a huge drone and missile attack on Ukraine earlier that day.
Polish President Andrzej Duda contacted NATO chief Jen Stoltenberg to discuss the incident after the missile left Polish territory. This was not the first time that a foreign missile landed in Poland. In November 2022, a Ukrainian air defence missile killed two civilians in the Polish village of Przewodow near the border.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia unleashed one of the largest air strikes on his country, using various weapons in its arsenal. The attack killed 18 people and wounded over 100. “Russia attacked us with almost everything it has today,” Zelensky posted on X, the former Twitter. Zelensky said that several cities, including Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia, were hit by the Russian attack. He said that Russia used its S-300 missile system, cruise missiles and UAVs. “Strategic bombers fired X-101/X-505. About 110 missiles were launched, most of which we shot down,” he added. Reports said that the Russian military tried to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defences by sending multiple waves of Shahed attack drones.
