An alleged Russian-made missile was discovered in a forest in western Poland two weeks ago. Polish authorities are investigating the case, but the government is yet to make a statement about its findings.
The case has so far raised more questions than answers.
What we know is this: a woman who was horse riding in a forest near the western Polish city of Bydgoszcz came across an object on 22 April, which she said resembled a missile and reported it to local police.
Last week, journalists from the local edition of Wyborcza, a national newspaper, went looking for answers in the forest where the object had been discovered.
There, they found what appeared to be fragments from a missile.
A section of the forest and roads leading to the area were cordoned off by Polish military police and local police officers.
Jakub Palowski, a Polish defence analyst, told RTÉ News that, if it was a missile, it was most likely a decoy fired by a Russian bomber against Ukrainian air defence systems.
"No explosives were found on the object and it's quite likely that it flew into Poland instead of its designated target in Ukraine," said Mr Palowski, deputy editor-in-chief of defence24.com.
Bydgoszcz, however, is about 500km from the border with Ukraine, meaning any potential missile would have travelled from the southeast to the northwest of Polish airspace.
Poland’s Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro confirmed in a post on Twitter last week that an "aerial military facility" had been found in the forest and the public prosecutor’s office in Gdansk was investigating the case.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki then said the identified object was connected to an incident that Poland’s intelligence services had picked up in December, while it was reported that Polish aircraft had followed the trajectory of the object at the time.
This suggests that the Polish government was aware of the alleged missile, or object, but had lost track of it given that it was eventually discovered by a member of the public five months later.
"The fact that it didn't contain explosives was lucky, but, on the other hand, it made finding the debris difficult," said Mr Palowski.
Journalists at Wyborcza, a daily newspaper in Poland, reported that they spoke to additional sources who said the discovered object was a Ch-55 cruise missile, which is used by Russian aircraft bombers in Ukraine and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
Writing in Polityka, a popular weekly political magazine, defence editor Marek Swierczynski said that the missile was unlikely to have been launched as a deliberate attack.
"A single missile could only be used in the extreme case of a nuclear attack. Russia does not seem to want this type of escalation against NATO since it has not even attacked supply lines from the West, which includes Poland, to Ukraine," wrote Mr Swierczynski.
Last November, a Russian-made rocket did land in the southeast of Poland, close to the border with Ukraine, killing two farmers.
That incident led the Polish government to call a meeting of its National Security Council.
The government’s response on this occasion has been muted.
By coincidence, or not, there is a NATO Joint Force Training Centre in Bydgoszcz, which staffs 170 military personnel from different alliance members.
Mr Palowski and another defence expert confirmed to RTÉ News that Poland’s military does not hold stocks of Ch-55 missiles.
The Ch-55 has a long-range distance of 3,000km and can travel at low altitude at a speed of 1,000km/h, making it difficult to detect by radar.
"We are under peacetime procedures and, by definition, the military want to avoid collateral damage. They still would not decide to shoot down the object until they have a visual identification," said Mr Palowski.
The incident does raise questions around the effectiveness of Poland's air defence systems.
In the same Polityka article, Mr Swierczynski wrote that, despite spending large sums on air defence systems in recent years, "Poland still has significant gaps in the area of detection, tracking and identification of air attacks".
"Cruise missiles are by their nature the most difficult to detect," he said.
Last week, Poland signed an agreement with the UK to purchase a British air-defence system worth £1.9 billion (€2.18bn) and plans to spend 4% of GDP on defence this year.
Polish plane intercepted by Russian fighter jet - Border Guard reports
This morning, Poland's Border Guard reported that one of its airplanes had been intercepted on Friday by a Russian fighter jet whilst conducting a routine patrol for Frontex, the EU’s border agency, over the Black Sea.
Poland’s Border Guard and Romania’s ministry of defence said that the interception occurred over the Black Sea’s international airspace and that a Russian Su-35 fighter made "three aggressive and dangerous manoeuvres" towards the Polish aircraft.
The Polish aircrew said that the Russian fighter came within five metres of their aircraft, causing them to lose altitude before landing safely at Mihail Kogalniceanu Airport in southern Romania.
