The head of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin, Grzegorz Trusiewicz, has released new information regarding the unmanned aerial vehicle that crashed into a cornfield in the village of Osyny, some 100 kilometers from Warsaw, on Aug. 20.
An official from the Polish prosecutor’s office, cited by RMF24, has said that “there is a high probability” that the drone “came from Belarus.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz indicated the drone was Russian. Belarus and Russia are known allies, and back in 2021, concerns were raised during the Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2021 war games, including drone warfare, that Moscow was preparing to invade Ukraine. Moscow denied any such intention and accused the West and Ukraine of their own plan of aggression.
“Combined with the records we have, there is a very high probability that the object probably came from Belarus,” he said.
Aside from some broken windows in homes near the crash site, no further damage or injuries were reported.
The drone was largely damaged, shattering upon impact, but investigators have retrieved one large intact piece of the drone. It has an inscription, presumably in Korean. Previously, Rzeczpospolita reported that the drone was an Iranian-made Shahed-131 or Shahed-136.
TVP reported earlier that the drone was meant to divert anti-aircraft defense systems from actual combat drones and thus contained only a small amount of explosives.
Despite having to deploy their air force twice in recent days in response to threats from long-range Russian missiles and Russian aircraft, including UAVs, the Polish military says no drone was ever detected by their radar systems.
Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the incident, stating on X: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers the event to be another deliberate provocation, fitting into the pattern of hybrid actions undertaken by Russia. We strongly condemn all actions that pose a threat to civilian populations and the safety of air traffic.”
