An unidentified flying object entered Polish airspace in the early hours of 30 July and crashed in a field near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia, in Lublin province, leaving a crater approximately 10 metres in diameter. The incident unfolded as Russian forces conducted large-scale long-range strikes across Ukraine, prompting Warsaw to scramble fighter jets and place air defences on higher alert. Polish police sealed off the area and recovered debris, but no casualties were reported, and the origin of the object remains unconfirmed.

According to Poland’s operational command, radars detected the object at 03:40 local time moving in a westerly direction. An F-16 fighter on quick reaction alert was vectored to intercept, but the contact vanished from radar screens at 03:46, before a clear identification could be made. A Mi-24 helicopter subsequently located the probable impact site in an uninhabited area. The command also reported that national and allied reconnaissance systems had recorded intense activity by Russian long-range aviation during the night, and that Polish air-defence radars tracked at least ten missiles over western Ukraine. One of those missiles approached to within 5 kilometres of the Polish border at 03:29 before altering course eastward.

The Russian Defence Ministry, in a statement posted on Telegram, confirmed that it had carried out a "mass attack with precision long-range weapons launched from land, air and sea" as well as drones, targeting military installations across Ukraine. The bombardment killed at least one person in Kyiv and six in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, including two girls aged 5 and 12, according to local officials. Other strikes hit Lviv, near the Polish border, where rescue workers searched for survivors trapped under the rubble of apartment buildings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned hours earlier of a high probability of a mass strike, urging allies to supply additional air-defence systems.

Poland, a NATO member that shares a long frontier with Ukraine, has experienced a series of airspace violations in recent years. In September 2025, the country recorded 19 incursions, reportedly by Russian drones, leading to NATO Article 4 consultations. The latest incident is under active investigation, with police and military teams on the ground. A spokesman for the operational command said the force was conducting "operational and security work" to determine the nature of the object. No official attribution has yet been made.