A Russian cruise missile hit a Polish farm field 100 kilometres (62 miles) inland on Thursday 30 July. On Friday, Polish authorities confirmed that it was a Kh-101, also known within NATO as the AS-23 Kodiak. These are cruise missiles that are launched from the air, by Russian bombers.
No one was injured when the cruise missile hit the field, 2 kilometres from the nearest building in between the villages of Tarnawa-Kolonia and Tokary in the Lublin province in Eastern Poland. The impact and explosion caused a 10-metre wide, 5-metre deep crater in the farmer’s field.
Scrambled Polish air defences
The missile was likely meant to hit something in Western Ukraine, but flew on. Polish defence minister Cezary Tomczyk told broadcaster TVN24 on Thursday that the Polish air defence’s tracked 20 out of 70 Russian missiles that at one point during their flight were aimed like they might go into Poland. The Polish Air Force sent up one of their F-16s to intercept the Kh-101 that eventually entered airspace, but could not reach it before it hit the ground. A scrambled Mi-24 combat helicopter crew confirmed shortly after the location of the impact, after which army and police were sent to the site.
It is not the first time that Russian and Ukrainian military equipment flies into Polish and therefore NATO airspace. As far as known, in every single case it was by accident. The Kh-101 is typically launched from Russian Tu-95 or Tu-160 bombers.
Eska Radio has photos of the crash site at https://lublin.eska.pl/tylko-u-nas-potezny-wybuch-na-lubelszczyznie-i-ogromny-krater-mamy-zdjecia-aa-mKTV-zxoJ-BJTK.html | © 2026 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com. Featured image: A Russian Tupolev Tu-95 bomber over Moscow in 2021 (Photo: Sergey Kustov (CC))
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