Poland has summoned the Russian ambassador and handed him a protest note after a Russian missile landed on Polish territory.

“Today, the Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in connection with the missile that hit Polish territory yesterday,” said Polish prime minister Donald Tusk on Friday.

Warsaw on Thursday confirmed that the projectile, which came down in eastern Poland, was a Russian Kh-101 missile.

The incident came amid a series of airspace incursions on Nato’s eastern flank, fuelling fears that the war in Ukraine may spill over the alliance’s borders.

Spokesperson for the Polish foreign ministry, Maciej Wewior, stated, “We conveyed to the ambassador our unequivocal condemnation of hostile actions directed against the security of a sovereign state and its citizens,” 

Mr Wewior noted that Poland demanded an end to actions that endangered the lives and safety of her citizens and, at the same time, posed a risk of an aviation disaster.

Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, in a statement on X, also noted that the missile was produced near Moscow in the second quarter of this year.

”This means that Russia is using newly produced missiles to strike Ukraine. It confirms reports that Russian wartime stockpiles have been depleted.

“Every piece of aid to Ukraine therefore brings that country closer to the end of war. And that is extremely important for our security,” Mr Kosiniak-Kamysz noted.

The missile landed near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the Polish-Ukrainian border and 150 kilometers (93 miles) northwest of Lviv.

The incident highlighted the persistent danger facing western Ukrainian cities like Lviv and neighboring alliance states as Russia continued throwing immense military weight into its bombing campaigns.