As per reports, a mysterious “military object” that was discovered in a Polish woodland last month was actually a Russian missile.
In the final week of April, the alleged KH-55 rocket was observed close to Zamo, a town located roughly nine kilometres from Bydgoszcz.
The broadcaster RMF FM described it as an air-to-surface missile that was at least several metres long, lodged in the ground, and missing its head at the time. At the time, rumours regarding its origins circulated on social media.
One of the two Polish media outlets that have claimed that the object was a KH-55 missile today is this one.
Journalists said this was determined in the preliminary findings of Poland’s Air Force Institute of Technology’s investigation.
Polsat News reported the same thing but neither named their sources.
The KH-55, which is referred to as CH-55 in Polish, is an air-launched cruise missile developed by the Soviet Union that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
It is believed the rocket found last month landed in Polish territory last December, before it was discovered by a ‘random witness’ around three months later.
Poland has been on high alert for possible spill over of weaponry from the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
In November, two people were killed near the border by what Warsaw concluded was a misfired Ukrainian air defence missile.
The area where the object was found is hundreds of miles from the borders with Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
These types of incidents raise anxieties and long-held fears that the Russian war in Ukraine could spill out into Poland, a NATO member.
Metro.co.uk has contacted the Polish government and Poland’s Air Force Institute of Technology for comment.