A military object found in northern Poland last month may have been a Russian Kh-55 long-range cruise missile, according to an unnamed source.
Private radio station RMF FM in Poland on May 10 quoted an anonymous source from the Air Force Institute of Technology as saying that the object found in the forest near the northern city of Bydgoszcz late last month was a "Russian Kh-55 missile." Polsat News later reported similar information, but did not disclose the source.
Spokespeople for the Polish government and the Air Force Institute of Technology have not commented, while the Polish Defense Ministry and the Russian embassy in the country declined to comment.
The scene of a military object that crashed near the Polish city of Bydgoszcz in April. Photo: Reuters
Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro announced on April 27 that the Military Department of the Prosecutor's Office in Gdansk city has opened an investigation "in connection with fragments of a military aircraft object found in a forest a few kilometers from the city of Bydgoszcz".
The area where the object was found is hundreds of kilometers from Poland's borders with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Polish authorities at the time said they had not yet determined what the object was, where it came from or how long it had been in the forest, but insisted it posed no threat to residents and there were no signs of an explosion in the area.
Poland has remained vigilant against the risk of the Russia-Ukraine war affecting its territory, especially after a Ukrainian S-300 air defense missile fell on the village of Przewodow near the border, killing two people in November 2022.
The Kh-55 is an aircraft-launched cruise missile developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and put into service in 1983. The Kh-55 series is equipped with an inertial navigation system and terrain image matching, capable of flying along terrain at low altitudes and maneuvering continuously to avoid enemy air defenses.
Each Kh-55 missile has a range of 2,500-3,000 km depending on the version, carrying a nuclear warhead equivalent to 200,000 tons of TNT, providing powerful weapons for the Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bomber fleet, allowing them to attack targets from beyond the interception range of any enemy air defense system.
Location of the city of Bydgoszcz (red dot). Graphic: Google Maps
The British Ministry of Defense assessed in November 2022 that Russia likely removed nuclear warheads from older cruise missiles such as the Kh-55 and launched these missiles into Ukraine.
"Russia appears to be using them as decoys to distract and confuse Ukrainian air defences," the British military said, stressing that the Kh-55 missiles without warheads can still cause damage through kinetic energy and unspent fuel, but are unlikely to be as effective as complete missiles.
Vu Anh (According to Reuters )
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