The head of the General Staff of the Polish Army, General Wiesław Kukula, said that Poland considers the flight of a Russian missile to its territory "mostly a deliberate action." However, there is a possibility that the missile deviated from the programmed trajectory.
This is reported by RMF FM.
He specified that it was a strategic air-to-ground cruise missile Kh-101.
"The missile is programmed. Russian missiles have a relatively low accuracy, so any options are possible, both the intentional programming of the missile in this way, and the fact that it simply deviated from a certain programmed path," added the Chief of the General Staff in a comment to journalists.
At the same time, Vieslav Kukula emphasized that "targets of this type on the border of the two countries pose a dilemma" whether to destroy them or not, because if Poland shot it down, it could have consequences in Ukraine.
The Chief of the General Staff believes that the Polish side acted adequately and exemplary, "as expected by our allies."
- On March 24, at 04:23 in the morning, a Russian rocket flying at an altitude of 400 meters at a speed of 800 km/h flew 2 kilometers deep into the territory of Poland. The rocket spent 39 seconds in the area of Oserduv village. Having fixed it, two pairs of F-16s — two Polish and two American fighters — were lifted into the air. The Operational Command of the Armed Forces of Poland said that shooting down a Russian missile would be risky, especially for the local population. And there they added that if the missile had flown deep into Poland, they could have decided to shoot it down with F-16 planes.
- Against this background, the Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to explain the violation of Polish airspace by a Russian missile. Ambassador Serhii Andreev did not show up for the meeting. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland is now interested in whether the ambassador follows the instructions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow and whether he is able to properly represent the interests of the Russian Federation. Andreev himself told the Russian media that he allegedly did not receive evidence to support the accusations.