Polish General: The Tu-95MS That Crashed In Russia May Have Been Involved In An Attack On Poland
- 1.10.2026, 8:18
This refers to the rocket that exploded on July 30 in the Lublin Voivodeship.
General Irenaeusz Nowak, the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces’ Service Branches, reported that Tu-95MS strategic bomber, which recently crashed in Russia, may have previously been involved in a strike near Tarnava.
The aircraft crashed on September 29 in the Russian Far East, killing all six crew members. Irenaeusz Nowak responded to this news by stating that this particular Tu-95MS could have been carrying the Kh-101 cruise missile that had previously attacked Poland. The Polish general shared his reaction on his page on the X network.
“It is possible that this very aircraft carried the Kh-101 missile, which ended its flight near Tarnava,” Novak noted briefly.
According to the publication “Wiadomosci,” the incident involved a missile that exploded near the village of Tarnawy-Kolonia in the Lublin Voivodeship on July 30 while crossing the Polish border.
An “act of retaliation” or a coincidence?
Following this statement by the Polish general—who rarely makes public statements regarding such incidents—speculation arose that the crash of the Russian bomber might not have been “a mere coincidence.” Novak himself, in a comment to the publication, declined to go into details or explain his words more specifically.
“I won’t comment on that. It was a personal post, without any deeper context. We have enough sensationalism as it is,” he emphasized.
Another high-ranking Polish military officer, the former head of Military Intelligence, Brigadier General Marek Lapinski, noted that “if our services had such capabilities and made use of them, we’d be complete idiots if we confirmed it in any way.”
The former commander of the Air Operations Center, Colonel General of Aviation Sławomir Dignatowski, in turn, stated that the Armed Forces Operational Command might simply have had accurate data indicating that this particular aircraft took to the air in July to carry out airstrikes against Ukraine. He added that this does not necessarily imply any theories or secret operations.
“There is nothing sensational about the fact that this aircraft has, so to speak, finally been ‘parked’ on the ground for good. But we received this information with great pleasure and are looking forward to further developments,” said Dignatowski.
He also explained that during each flight of such an aircraft, its route is analyzed to identify potential targets for attack. In such cases, Poland relies on data from its allies to identify with sufficient accuracy the areas that may be subject to attack, as well as the directions of the attack.