A flying object that crashed in Poland near the Ukrainian border overnight was likely a Russian missile, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday.
"Everything points to it being a Russian CH-101 cruise missile, but we do not wish to pre-empt the results of a thorough investigation," Tusk said in the eastern city of Lublin during a visit to the crash site.
"We were prepared to shoot down the missile if it had continued on its course," he added.
An unidentified flying object entered Polish airspace and crashed during heavy Russian airstrikes on neighbouring Ukraine overnight, Poland's military had said earlier on Thursday.
The military's supreme command said the object came down in an uninhabited area near the village of Tarnawa Kolonia, some 90 kilometres south of Lublin, where an air raid alarm sounded early in the morning.
Deputy Defence Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka told Radio Zet that nobody had been injured in the incident and no property had been damaged.
Tusk headed to the crash site together with Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski.
The military said an unidentified object was detected in Polish airspace at around 3:40 am (0140 GMT), moving in a westerly direction. An F-16 fighter jet was scrambled to identify it, but the flying object subsequently disappeared from radar. The crew of a helicopter later identified the crash site.
Lublin police said on X that residents had reported hearing a massive bang in the early hours of the morning. Near Tarnawa Kolonia, officers found a crater 10 metres in diameter.
Kosiniak-Kamysz described it as "an extraordinarily difficult night for our air defence, surveillance and interception systems," with investigations ongoing to identify the object.
Kiev's leadership placed responsibility for the incident on Russia. "Overnight, a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into Poland as part of Russia's massive strike against Ukraine, violating NATO airspace," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
"This is yet another clear demonstration that strengthening Ukraine's air defence now is urgent and serves as a guarantee for the protection of the entire Euro-Atlantic community," he added.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Polish airspace has been violated on several occasions.
In September, a large number of drones entered Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine. The Polish air force and other NATO allies shot down some of the projectiles for the first time.