The missile that fell in Poland identified as Russian Kh-55

The incident with a Russian missile recently found in a Polish forest illustrates how fragile the safety of Europeans is in times when a projectile made by low-skilled workers and operated by poorly-trained soldiers under the command of irresponsible rulers can fly thousands of miles.

On Thursday, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, unveiled some of the findings of the investigation in the case of the wreck of an “unidentified military object” that fell in December 2022 and was found in late April in the village of Zamość near Bydgoszcz, a city 226 kilometers northwest of Warsaw.

“It was established that on December 16, the Air Operations Center subordinate to the Operational Commander received information from the Ukrainian side about an object approaching Polish space, which may be a missile,” Błaszczak said according to TVN24.

According to the preliminary findings of the Air Force Institute of Technology, the object was a Russian Kh-55 cruise missile, RMF FM reporters have unofficially found out. It most likely came from across Poland’s eastern border, because the Polish army does not have this armament.

These findings rule out the version that appeared just after the discovery of the wreck, that the rocket found near Bydgoszcz was launched from a Polish training ground, e.g., during exercises or tests of air defense systems. Poland has neither such missiles nor systems that could launch them.

In an interview with TVN24, military expert Maksymilian Dura, assessed the incident as a “really dangerous” situation. He pointed out that “taking into account the range of this missile, i.e., three thousand kilometers, it could even fly over France.”