Poland officially admits: Rocket came from its own aircraft, not from the Russians

Following the alleged "incursion by Russian drones"—according to the German Press Agency (dpa) without citing sources—a damaged house in Poland was apparently hit by a missile from a Western fighter jet. "Everything indicates that it was a missile fired by our aircraft while defending Poland," said Tomasz Siemoniak, coordinator of the Polish intelligence services, in Warsaw, according to the German Press Agency (dpa). However, one must await the results of the ongoing investigation to be certain.

The German Air Force (dpa) writes, without citing verifiable sources: "When many Russian drones entered Polish airspace last week, Polish F-16 fighter jets and F-35 aircraft stationed in Poland took off and shot down flying robots."

Already on Monday, the Polish daily newspaper "Rzeczpospolita," citing anonymous sources in the military, reported that a Polish AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile, fired from an F-16 fighter jet, had fallen on the building. The missile, whose value military experts estimate at €850,000, suffered a defect in its guidance system. However, another system that defused the warhead was reportedly functioning properly, so there was no explosion. The metal missile punched a hole in the roof and fell into an upstairs room. No one was injured in the impact.

Dispute in Poland

The newspaper report sparked a clash between PiS President Karol Nawrocki and the center-left government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The president demanded an immediate investigation into the events in Wyryki, Nawrocki's National Security Office wrote on Platform X on Tuesday. No information should be concealed.

Nawrocki is a friend of US President Donald Trump. Before the F-16 incident became public, Trump said in Washington that he hoped it was not a Russian attack, but a "mistake" by the Russians. Prime Minister Tusk attacked Nawrocki. "The entire responsibility for the damage to the house in Wyryki lies with the perpetrators of the drone provocation, i.e., Russia," he wrote on X. The relevant authorities would inform the president and the public after the investigations were completed. "Keep your hands off Polish soldiers."

The images of the damaged roof of the house in the eastern Polish village of Wyryki, 15 kilometers from the border with Belarus, have gone around the world, according to the German Press Agency (dpa). Most media outlets, without reliable sources, had reported that the house had been hit by a Russian drone. At the time, the German Press Agency (dpa) wrote a somewhat more cryptic, but still misleading, caption for a photo of the house: "The roof of a residential building in Wyryki, eastern Poland, destroyed by a drone. During the night, Polish airspace was repeatedly violated by Russian drones." The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) continued the spin on Thursday, writing: "According to government sources, a house damaged in Poland after an incursion by Russian drones was most likely hit by a missile from a Western fighter jet."

In response to the images that have circulated around the world, Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a new, sharp warning against Russia. He warned the Bundestag of the potential consequences of a Russian-dictated peace in Ukraine. This would only encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin "to seek his next target," the CDU leader said during the general debate on the 2025 federal budget. "Putin has long been testing the boundaries," he emphasized. "He sabotages, he spies, he murders, he seeks to create uncertainty." This "has recently been seen not only in Poland; Russia also wants to destabilize German society," Merz warned, according to dpa.