“In our assessment, this was a decoy drone, which did not carry a combat warhead, but instead carried a self-destruction warhead,” said General Dariusz Malinowski at a press conference regarding the military drone that exploded in Osiny. The device bypassed the Polish army’s radar field. Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz added that “everything indicates this is a provocative drone from the Russian Federation.”
Last night, a military drone crashed near the town of Osiny in the Lublin region. Residents of nearby houses heard a loud bang and saw a flash from the explosion. Windows cracked in three surrounding buildings. Fortunately, no one was injured.
Around 3 p.m., District Prosecutor Grzegorz Trusiewicz in Lublin confirmed that a military expert established the device carried explosive material. However, he stressed that the drone’s origin and type have not yet been identified.
Before 5 p.m., Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz convened a press conference, stating that the incident was a “Russian provocation.” He emphasized that it came at a time when peace talks on Ukraine are underway. General Dariusz Malinowski, also present at the briefing, provided more details about the event.
“Last night we received information that Ukraine’s western regions had been attacked by drones. Therefore, around 10 p.m. we initiated standard procedures designed to secure our border. Forces and means for countering missiles were raised, and a MiG-24 helicopter was also deployed to patrol the eastern, Ukrainian side of our border,” he said.
The monitoring procedure ended at midnight. According to Malinowski, “nothing occurred that would indicate anything unusual.” – “This morning, after sunrise, we received reports […] of an object that exploded very close to Łuków. In our assessment, it was a decoy drone, which did not carry a combat warhead, but carried a self-destruction warhead,” he stated.
Following news of the explosion, helicopters were immediately dispatched “to determine whether there were any additional explosions in the area, other sites characteristic of air crashes, or further drone strikes.” – “This was not confirmed,” he said. He added that “at this moment, ground search teams are working intensively to locate the remaining debris of the drone.”
“In our assessment, this drone was designed to be very difficult to detect. And indeed it was. It probably flew very low in order to bypass our radar field, and as of today, that is all the information we have,” he explained.
General Malinowski also reported that a special team of analysts has been appointed “to thoroughly examine this incident from a strictly military perspective.”