WARSAW: Polish missile or Russian drone? Poland was investigating Wednesday what kind of projectile damaged a house last week during an intrusion into its airspace by around 20 drones.
Initial suspicion was that debris from a Russian drone, shot down by Polish air defense, had hit the building.
No one on the ground was hurt, but the incident provided some of the most dramatic images of the episode, which escalated tensions between Moscow and the NATO allies — already sky-high over Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Polish media reports now suggest that the house in the village of Wyryki in the east of the country was hit by an AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile fired by a Polish F-16 fighter that was scrambled to hunt the drones.
“The investigation is in its preliminary stage, and we must wait for expert opinion to determine what type of weaponry damaged this house,” Anna Adamiak, spokeswoman for the national prosecutor’s office, told AFP.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has insisted that regardless of what kind of object hit the rural home, responsibility for the incident lies squarely with Moscow.
“All responsibility for the damage caused to the house in Wyryki falls on the perpetrators of the drone provocation, namely Russia,” Tusk declared in a social media post.
“All circumstances of the incident will be communicated to the public, the government, and the president by the relevant services once the investigation is concluded,” he added.
Russia, which launches drone attacks daily against Poland’s neighbor Ukraine, has denied targeting Poland.
According to Adamiak, the investigation into “the violation of Polish airspace” and “endangerment” of people and property concerns all drone intrusions recorded during the night of September 9 to 10.
Poland, a NATO member, and some of its allies deployed aircraft and other military resources to counter the intruding drones, most or all of which were ultimately either shot down or recovered, mainly in the east and center of the country.