Poland summons Russia’s ambassador over missile incursion

WARSAW - Poland’s foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador following an incursion of a missile into one of its eastern regions a day earlier, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said July 31.

“Today, the Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in connection with the missile that hit Polish territory yesterday,” he wrote on X, after the missile left a crater in a field some 80km from Poland’s border with Ukraine.

NATO and European leaders blamed Russia for the explosion of a Kh-101 missile in a field that shook residents of the village of Tarnawa Kolonia.

“The missile was manufactured in the second quarter of this year at a factory near Moscow,” Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X.

An expert from Ukraine who arrived at the scene “did not have the slightest doubt” about the origins or model of the missile, Marcin Kozak, spokesman for the Lublin prosecutor’s office, told journalists on July 31.

In November 2022, a Ukrainian air-defence missile fell on the Polish village of Przewodow, killing two people.

And in September 2025, around 20 Russian drones that entered Polish airspace were shot down or crashed.

Other eastern European states have also been hit by Russian drones and missiles since 2022, particularly Romania and Moldova. AFP

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (centre) visiting the site of the missile impact on July 30, with Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz (left) and Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski. PHOTO: REUTERS