Poland confirms Ukrainian missile responsible for killing Polish farmers

The war in Ukraine

Published 29 September 2023
- By Editorial Staff
Phile photo of the Soviet S-300 anti-aircraft missile system being demonstrated in Moscow.

An official Polish investigation has now been completed and confirms that the missile that landed on a Polish farm and killed two farmers was actually fired from Ukraine, not Russia as previously reported.

Last November, European and American media reported that a ‘Russian missile’ had hit Poland, resulting in the death of two Polish farmers. This report led to an uproar and calls from several politicians and opinion leaders in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States for NATO to implement Article 5 and militarily engage Russia in response to the alleged attack.

However, information soon began to circulate indicating that the missile in question was actually a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile that missed its target and landed in Poland. Despite this, Kiev continued to deny this information and maintained that it was a Russian attack.

The official Polish investigation has now been completed, and the results confirm that the missile was a 5V55 anti-aircraft missile fired by Ukrainian troops using the Soviet S-300P anti-aircraft system. This information correlates with the earlier findings of the Russian Ministry of Defense after analyzing photos of the crash site.

Investigators have also been able to locate the exact position from which the missile was fired, ruling out that it came from a Russian position in Ukraine. According to sources involved in the investigation, the Ukrainian Armed Forces routinely fire two anti-aircraft missiles at each incoming enemy projectile to increase the chances of shooting it down. Normally, anti-aircraft missiles that miss their target are supposed to self-destruct in the air, but in this case the projectile continued towards Poland.