WARSAW (Reuters) -A drone which crashed into a field in eastern Poland most likely came from the direction of Belarus, a regional prosecutor said on Thursday, following an incident described by the defence minister as a provocation by Belarus’ ally Russia.
The military drone fell into a cornfield overnight on Tuesday, scorching crops, shattering windows in nearby homes and adding to tensions during a crucial period in efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
“There is a very high probability … that the object probably came from Belarus,” Lublin regional prosecutor Grzegorz Trusiewicz told reporters. The country has backed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday that initial findings of the investigation and some experts suggested a Russian version of the Shahed drone developed by Iran was involved in the latest incident.
Trusiewicz said he was unable to confirm the model of drone involved.
A protest note would be given to Russia on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki told private broadcaster RMF FM. He said its tone would depend on whether the defence minister’s account of it as a deliberate provocation was confirmed.
The embassy of Belarus in Warsaw did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There was no comment from the Russian embassy.
Early on Thursday, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said it had scrambled jets due to Russian strikes on western Ukraine. However, it said that no violation of Polish airspace was observed.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish;Editing by Helen Popper and Philippa Fletcher)
