A part of a missile fired from a Polish military plane with the aim of shooting down a Russian drone probably hit the house in eastern Poland earlier this month, Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Szymoniak said last night, quoted by Reuters and BTA.
Polish authorities initially reported that the apartment building in the village of Wiryki-Wola was likely hit by one of 21 Russian drones that entered Polish airspace on the night of September 9-10.
The Polish daily "Żecpospolita" on Tuesday reported that the house was hit by a missile fired from a Polish F-16 fighter jet whose guidance system was malfunctioning.
"Everything indicates that the missile was fired from our plane, defending Poland, defending the homeland, defending our citizens," he told TVN 24 and Szemonac last night.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki – a political rival of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist government, said on Tuesday that he would demand an investigation into the incident.
Tusk responded on the social network "Ex" that all responsibility for the damage in Wiriki-Wola lay with Russia, which, he said, was responsible for organizing the drone provocation.
"The responsible services will inform the public, the government and the president about all the circumstances surrounding the incident after the completion of the (investigative) actions," Tusk wrote.
Russia said its forces were carrying out an attack on Ukraine at the time of the drones' incursion over Poland and stressed that they had no intention of hitting targets in the NATO member country.
Moscow's permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, said that the maximum range of the drones used did not exceed 700 km, which "makes it physically impossible for them to reach Polish territory. territory".
Warsaw rejected these arguments, saying that the drones were sent over Polish airspace deliberately to test Poland's and NATO's response capabilities.