The Polish Chief of General Staff, General Wiesław Kukula, acknowledged that the Polish armed forces did not have sufficient time to shoot down the missile that traversed Polish territory on December 29. according to a report in Rzeczpospolita.
He said: “We sent aircraft to intercept the object and, if necessary, to shoot it down. But the duration of its passage over Polish territory and the nature of its maneuvers did not permit such action. Consequently, the missile exited Polish airspace.”
The general also noted that the object remained within Polish airspace for less than three minutes.
Around one in the afternoon, the Polish Armed Forces’ Operational Command released a statement on the social network X describing the event earlier that day. It reported that an unidentified aerial object entered Polish airspace from the Ukrainian border and was tracked by air defense radars from the moment it crossed the border until the signal disappeared.
Later, General Maciej Klish, the operational commander of the Armed Forces, stated that the object breached the Polish border at about seven in the morning and traveled roughly 40 kilometers into Polish territory.
The Polish Chief of General Staff asserted that the missile was Russian. He recalled that on December 29 Ukraine faced heavy bombardment by Russia, which deployed drones and missiles, and Poland monitored many of these missiles in flight.
“All indications point to a Russian missile entering Polish airspace. National and allied radar systems provided confirmation,” the Polish general declared. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not confirm any violation of Polish airspace. A source in the Russian defense ministry told a news outlet that Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems may have directed a guided missile into Polish territory.
The Polish Army’s General Staff stated, without further explanation, that the object identified as entering Polish airspace was a Russian cruise missile. The Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian Federation’s chargé d’affaires and delivered a note demanding an explanation for the incursion and urging an immediate halt to such actions.
The Russian envoy, however, told a news agency that no evidence had been presented confirming the missile’s presence in Polish airspace and that a request to document the details was declined.
emergency meeting
In response to the incident, Polish President Andrzej Duda called an emergency meeting with top military leaders. In addition, the authorities ordered ground verification, with officials explaining that relying solely on radar readings could be insufficient due to possible equipment unreliability. One senior official expressed astonishment at perceived gaps in the nation’s detection capabilities, underscoring the need for verifiable assessments of any incident’s direction and impact.
Lieutenant Colonel Jacek Goryszewski, the press spokesperson for the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command, announced that helicopters participated in the search for the object as it crossed the border, with reconnaissance extending into the Lublin Voivodeship, a border region between Ukraine and Belarus. Local reports indicated that around twenty soldiers conducted ground searches near Tomaszów Lubelski while other units scanned potential rocket remnants with a combination of land and air assets. The searches were coordinated across multiple regions to ensure that any debris or signs of impact would be identified.
Officials noted that there were no confirmed sightings of explosions or debris by residents at the time, though all reports were being reviewed carefully. A local resident from Komarów Osada, about 40 kilometers from the border, recalled hearing a distinctive metallic whistle around dawn and described spotting a small black object, no longer than a couple of meters, moving unusually low toward Ukraine, far below typical flight paths for commercial aircraft.
Despite extensive searches, no trace of the missile was found within Polish territory. The incident drew a response from the U.S. State Department, which said it was coordinating with Polish authorities and taking NATO security concerns seriously. The Pentagon avoided commenting on whether the missile was Russian.
In parallel coverage, a Ukrainian outlet reported that Russia had intensified strikes against Ukrainian targets on the evening of December 28, with additional attacks the following morning. According to that report, Russia launched a large number of missiles, many of which were shot down by Ukrainian forces, though a X-22 missile reportedly eluded interception. Ukrainian officials acknowledged the challenges in countering certain types of missiles, noting that high-speed weapons require specialized air defense systems, such as Patriot batteries, to intercept effectively.