Polish authorities said a military drone of Russian origin crashed and exploded in a cornfield near the village of Osiny in the eastern Lublin province at about 2:22 a.m. on 20 Aug. The blast scorched an area roughly 8–10 metres wide, shattered windows and damaged three buildings, but caused no injuries. Investigators recovered metal, plastic, engine and propeller fragments that preliminary tests identified as components of a Russian-built variant of the Iranian-designed Shahed 131/136 drone. A regional prosecutor added that flight data suggest the craft entered Polish airspace from the direction of Belarus. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski told Reuters that early findings point to a Russian Shahed drone, while Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz called the incident “another provocation by the Russian Federation” during a sensitive phase of peace talks on the Ukraine war. Warsaw has lodged a diplomatic protest and deployed army helicopters to survey the site; no violation of Polish airspace by Ukrainian or Belarusian forces was recorded at the time of the blast, the Armed Forces Operational Command said. The episode heightens concerns about spill-over from Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine. Similar drones have previously strayed into NATO member states Romania and Lithuania. Poland, which hosts more than a million Ukrainian refugees and acts as a key logistics hub for Western military aid, has been on high alert since a stray missile killed two people on its territory in 2022. Officials said Thursday that Polish and allied fighter jets were placed on standby after separate Russian strikes on western Ukraine, although Polish airspace remained secure.