Russian drone crashes in eastern Poland, igniting cornfield and prompting Warsaw protest

Overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday, a Russian drone crashed in eastern Poland, setting a cornfield on fire and blowing out windows in several homes. An hour earlier, air-raid sirens had sounded in western Ukraine, but Polish air defenses did not register any violation of Poland’s airspace.

Local media report the drone came down in a cornfield in the village of Osiny in eastern Lublin Voivodeship, just over 100 km from the Ukrainian border and roughly 40 km from Warsaw.

At the blast site, there is a crater with a radius of about 5–6 meters and a depth of 50–60 centimeters. The explosion also blew out windows in several houses, but no injuries were reported, according to national news agency PAP.

“I was sitting in my room at night, maybe around midnight, and heard something just bang,” local resident Pawel Sudowski told Lukow.tv. “It exploded so loudly that the whole house just shook,” he added.

An hour earlier, sirens had sounded in Ukraine’s Volyn and Lviv regions. Poland’s systems recorded “no violation” of its airspace.

Polish Deputy Defense Minister Stanislaw Wzientek said investigators suspect “perhaps not with absolute certainty, but with very high probability” that a Russian Gerbera drone with a Chinese engine fell near Osiny and “exploded in midair.” If confirmed, it would be the same model linked to a similar incident in Lithuania last month. A military forensic expert at the site also confirmed the drone carried explosives.

At the same time, Pawel Wronski, spokesman for Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, said the object that exploded in the cornfield was the Russian version of a Shahed drone. He said Poland will send Russia a diplomatic note in response.

“We have visible proof that Poland’s airspace is also under threat because of this war — that something can happen, something can explode. It’s dangerous, people can die, and the security of a North Atlantic Alliance member state is at risk,” Wronski said.

Gen. Dariusz Malinowski, deputy commander of the Armed Forces’ Operational Command, said the drone was launched from Russia. He cited intelligence, noting that “we do not have 100% certainty that it was… this exact drone, although we know the launch sites for these types of drones, and they are located on Russian territory.”

Malinowski added it remains unclear whether this was a deliberate breach of Polish airspace or a malfunction of a drone aimed at Ukraine.

Deputy Prime Minister and acting Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called it a Russian provocation. “Russia is once again provoking NATO countries after the drone incidents in Romania, Lithuania and Latvia,” he said.

“This is happening at an especially important moment, as discussions about peace continue. It is happening at a time when there is hope that the war started by Russia — a war against the Ukrainian state, and one that also threatens the security of NATO countries - has a chance to end,” Kosiniak-Kamysz added.