Polish prosecutors have identified the cruise missile that crashed in eastern Poland during Russia's mass overnight attack on Ukraine yesterday, according to Ukrinform. Investigators traced the weapon to a recent Russian production run and dated its manufacture, with a Ukrainian expert helping confirm the find. 

Prosecutors trace the missile to a Moscow-area plant

Marcin Kozak, spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Lublin, spoke at a media briefing on Friday, a Ukrinform correspondent reported on 31 July. He said the fallen weapon was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. Investigators reached that conclusion after examining the impact site in Lublin Voivodeship and the fragments recovered there. The same work let them date the weapon's manufacture and trace where in Russia it was built.

"Preliminary work examining the site and the traces found — that is, elements of the aerial object — allows us to state unequivocally what object we are dealing with," Kozak said. "This is a Kh-101 missile, manufactured in the second quarter of 2026 at one of the enterprises in Moscow Oblast."

That places the weapon's origin at a plant in the Moscow area, the region ringing the Russian capital. A Ukrainian expert arrived in Poland yesterday evening and joined the identification.

Explore further

Warsaw confirms a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile overshot Ukraine and hit a field in Poland

How the missile crossed into Poland

Yesterday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that a Kh-101 had crossed into Polish airspace during the overnight barrage. It came down about 50 kilometers from Lublin, leaving behind a crater where its warhead exploded. Poland put its air defenses on alert and scrambled military aircraft as Russia's missiles neared the border. Air raid sirens sounded in Lublin around 03:50 local time, and crews later found the crater and scattered debris around 95 km into Poland.

The Russian missile either strayed into Poland or was deliberately directed there during Russia's mass attack on Ukraine overnight on 30 July. Russia sent missiles and drones across the country, and several areas reported hits and fires. Its strikes hit Lviv, Kyiv, and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where the barrage also killed civilians in central Ukraine.

After the missile fell, two disinformation campaigns spread through Poland's information space, one aimed at Ukraine and the other at the Polish government.

Tusk also signaled that Warsaw would soon weigh sending Ukraine more missiles for its Patriot air defense systems.

A Romanian Air Force fighter jet shot down a drone over the country's Black Sea waters for the third time in three days, President Nicușor Dan announced. The repeated interceptions mark a shift for Romania, which for years only tracked or escorted uncrewed aircraft that drifted across its border during Russia's attacks on Ukraine. Bucharest is now preparing a diplomatic protest to Moscow, after prosecutors identified one of the downed drones as a Russian attack drone.

Third shootdown in three days

A Romanian F-16 shot down the drone at 10:13 on 26 July over territorial waters near the Sulina–Chilia area in the Danube delta, Dan wrote on X. It came down over the sea, off Romania's coast.

A Russian Shahed and a protest to Moscow

Romania's General Prosecutor's Office identified the drone downed on 24 July as a Shahed, the type Russia launches at Ukraine, Dan said. Investigations into the drones shot down on 25 and 26 July are still underway, and Romania's diplomatic protest to Russia will rest on those findings.

"It is inadmissible and intolerable for the Russian Federation to keep violating Romania's airspace, which is at the same time the airspace of NATO and the European Union," Dan said. "Such actions are unacceptable, and we treat them with the utmost seriousness, together with our allies."

Explore further

From escorting to firing: Romania changes how it meets Russia’s wandering drones

From escorting to firing

Romania downed its first drone on 24 July, when an F-16 fired on an intruder over uninhabited land northeast of Bucharest. It was the first known time a Romanian jet had destroyed a drone in the country's airspace, ending years of only escorting strays. A second drone came the next day, again shot down away from homes near the Ukrainian border.

Explore further

Romanian F-16 shoots down second drone in 2 days after another incursion over airspace near Ukraine

The country's pilots had already fired beyond their own skies, too. In May 2026, a Romanian F-16 on NATO's Baltic patrol carried out the first such shootdown over Estonia. Russian drones have repeatedly crossed into Romanian airspace during attacks on Ukraine, and the country has also faced naval drones in its territorial waters.