Authorities canceled the alert after around 20 minutes, saying there was no threat to Polish territory. Residents in eastern Poland were told to head for shelters and “find a safe place” on Monday afternoon as a Russian drone struck Ukrainian territory just two kilometers from the Polish border. The Polish defense minister said Russia had struck close to the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing, which connects Poland’s Lublin province with western Ukraine. “Another Russian attack in western Ukraine,” Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X. “A jet drone struck on the Ukrainian side approximately 2 km from the border crossing with Poland in Dorohusk. “There was no violation of Polish airspace. Our air defense systems and aircraft were ready to respond.” Ukrainian media outlets, cited by Polish state news agency PAP, reported that Ukraine’s border infrastructure was not damaged in the drone attack. An old terminal building was, however, reportedly struck. Images showed what appeared to be a drone falling to the ground near the site and exploding. The border crossing, as well as another checkpoint further south, were temporarily evacuated. Sirens wail as alert sent out Poland’s Government Security Center (RCB) sent out their first alerts to Lublin province residents via mobile networks and on social media at around 5pm, while military authorities announced that military jets had been scrambled. Air alert sirens wailed in provincial capital Lublin, as well as other parts of the region affected, as the events unfolded. The RCB issued an update around 20 minutes later canceling the warning and notifying residents that there is “no threat on the territory of Poland.” The RCB said on social media that it activated its alert “in connection with the air threat on the territory of Ukraine”, adding that it received information that the “threat had ceased” while the alert was still being distributed to residents. Two more alerts were later issued by the RCB for both Lublin province and the neighboring Podkarpackie region - the first just before 7pm and the other before 9pm. Both were canceled after around 20 minutes, and - unlike the earlier alarm - did not include an instruction to find shelter. Officials in Lublin region gathered for a meeting with the regional crisis management team on Monday evening. "We will all be on high alert tonight," governor Krzysztof Komorski said. "Our services will closely monitor what is happening. We are also following news from Ukraine. "We have also doubled the staff at the Regional Crisis Management Centre, where there are already two duty officers, so all hands are on deck and we will react to any incident." Yet another incident Poland’s proximity to Ukraine has meant that the effects of Russia’s more than four-and-a-half-year long war have at times spilled over the Polish border, with Warsaw on several previous occasions having deployed military jets to guard against suspected Russian drones and missiles. Monday’s incident comes just weeks after a series of Russian strikes near the Polish-Ukrainian border that damaged a passenger train and several trucks. A Russian drone struck a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train on September 13 around two kilometers from the border, when the train was still on Ukrainian territory, while another drone struck a gas station less than a kilometer from the Polish frontier near the Dorohusk–Yahodyn border crossing, setting two trucks ablaze. Monday’s alerts came on the same day that Russia launched a series of strikes across Ukraine, including an attack on a science academy in Kyiv which Ukrainian officials said killed at least one person.
