On the night of July 30, an air raid alert was declared in Poland’s Lublin Voivodeship. Sirens sounded in Lublin and several other cities across the region. Later, near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia, approximately 50 kilometres south of Lublin, law enforcement officers discovered a crater and fragments of an unidentified object.
According to the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces, at 03:40 radars detected an unidentified object in Polish airspace moving westward. An on-duty F-16 fighter jet was scrambled to identify and intercept it.
At 03:46, before it could be conclusively identified, the object disappeared from radar screens. A Mi-24 military helicopter was sent to the area of its last recorded position. Its crew found the probable crash site of the object in an undeveloped area near Tarnawa-Kolonia.
Police found a crater and debris
Lublin police reported that during the night they received a report of a powerful explosion heard between the settlements of Tarnawa-Kolonia and Biskupice in Biłgoraj County.
After 05:00, police officers found a crater and scattered fragments of an unidentified object in a field between Tarnawa-Kolonia and the village of Tokary. The site is located approximately two kilometres from the nearest residential buildings. The area was cordoned off and placed under guard.
The Polish Military Gendarmerie, the Internal Security Agency, the Military Counterintelligence Service and the District Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin were notified of the incident. Officers from a police counterterrorism unit were also sent to the site.
Captain Tomasz Stachyra, spokesperson for the Lublin Voivodeship Headquarters of the State Fire Service, said the crater was approximately 10 metres in diameter. Six fire and rescue units were deployed to secure the area.
“We have never heard anything like this in our lives. The windows nearly blew out,” one local resident told Polish journalists.
According to witnesses, the explosion was so powerful that windows shook in nearby homes. Military aircraft were heard over the area afterward.
Why sirens sounded in Lublin
The air raid warning in Lublin Voivodeship was activated at approximately 03:50, and the alert was lifted at around 04:01. The Lublin Voivodeship Office explained that the early warning system had been activated on the orders of Poland’s Government Centre for Security.
The decision was made based on information from the Operational Command about a possible threat of air strikes during a massive Russian attack on Ukraine.
Was it a Russian missile?
As of the morning of July 30, Polish authorities had not officially determined what had fallen near Tarnawa-Kolonia.
Karolina Gałecka, spokesperson for Poland’s Ministry of the Interior and Administration, confirmed that the crater had been discovered but stressed that the services did not yet know whether the unidentified object was a missile, another type of munition or an aircraft. She urged the public not to speculate until the examination of the debris was complete.
The Polish military reported that radars had tracked at least a dozen missiles over western Ukraine during the night. At 03:29, one of the objects came within approximately five kilometres of the Polish border before changing direction and flying eastward.
Separately, at 03:40, another object, which remains unidentified, was detected in Polish airspace. The military believes that this object is connected to the probable crash site near Tarnawa-Kolonia.
Therefore, reports by Ukrainian monitoring channels claiming that one or two missiles had entered Poland have not yet received full official confirmation. Only the presence of one unidentified object in Polish airspace and the discovery of its probable crash site have been confirmed.
- Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces — statement on an unidentified object in Polish airspace
Open the official statement on X - Lublin Voivodeship Police — statement on the crater and debris
Open the official police statement on X - Polish Press Agency PAP — unidentified object fell near Tarnawa-Kolonia
Open the PAP publication