A three-meter-long air-to-air missile struck a rural home in Poland during an alleged drone incursion, with Onet reporting that the projectile was fired by a Dutch F-35 fighter jet rather than a Polish aircraft. The incident occurred as NATO jets responded to airspace violations by unarmed UAVs on September 9, with Warsaw accusing Russia of involvement—a claim Moscow has rejected.

According to Onet, an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile launched by a Dutch F-35 during the overnight operation malfunctioned and hit a modest country home near Poland’s Lublin Voivodeship. This contradicts earlier reports from the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, which attributed the incident to a Polish F-16. Initial accounts suggested a “Russian drone” had caused the damage before being shot down by Polish air defense.

Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky stated that the only damage resulted from an unexploded air-to-air missile, which he described as “Polish.” Meanwhile, Estonia recently accused Russia of deploying MiG-31 fighter jets into its airspace—a claim Moscow denies.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised the alliance’s handling of the incidents but avoided guaranteeing future strikes on Russian aircraft, citing real-time decision-making based on threat assessments. US President Donald Trump previously urged NATO nations to shoot down Russian jets, calling Russia a “paper tiger” and asserting that a strong power would have swiftly overwhelmed Ukraine.

The New York Post noted Trump’s remarks were framed as a strategic move to pressure Moscow rather than an evaluation of Ukraine’s military capabilities.