‘Find a Safe place’: Poland Orders Shelter as Russian Strikes Hit Ukraine Gas Station

Residents of Poland’s eastern Lubelskie and Podkarpackie regions were ordered to seek shelter on Thursday as warning sirens sounded amid a Russian air attack on western Ukraine. “Warning! Warning! Warning! Threat of an air attack. Find a safe place. Follow instructions from the services. Await further messages,” the Government Security Centre (RCB) said. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The warning was stronger than alerts issued to the same regions in recent days, when residents were told that Russia was attacking Ukraine, Polish military aircraft were operating and they should await further information. A similar instruction to seek shelter was issued to six counties in Lubelskie on September 13, when authorities suspected that Polish airspace could have been violated during a Russian attack on Ukraine. Polish officials later said no Russian aircraft had entered Polish airspace. “A petrol station was probably attacked again,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka A massive explosion Speaking alongside Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker in Warsaw on Thursday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Russia had carried out a “massive, very brutal attack” on western Ukraine close to the Polish border. Other Topics of Interest Russia Claims Cyberattacks Targeted Parliamentary Election Online Voting System Russian officials claimed a massive cyberattack targeted Moscow’s electronic voting system during three-day parliamentary elections condemned by Ukraine. “A petrol station was probably attacked again. There was a massive explosion. Our aircraft were also scrambled,” Tusk said, referring to the area around Yahodyn, near the Polish border crossing at Dorohusk. He said a similar Russian air raid had taken place two days earlier, as well as during the night. Poland’s Operational Command later said a jet-powered drone had been rapidly approaching the Polish border before it apparently crashed or was shot down around four kilometers inside Ukraine. “We are still checking the records from our systems, but our initial indications are that it most likely hit a target or was neutralized four kilometers on the other side of the border, on Ukrainian territory,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Jacek Goryszewski told PAP. The airports in Lublin and Rzeszów also temporarily suspended flights to give military aircraft freedom to operate. Poland has taken similar measures during recent Russian attacks on western Ukraine, including scrambling fighter jets and placing air-defence systems on heightened alert. TVP World is Poland's first English-language channel where you can find our guest interviews, world news from the Polish perspective and the latest news from the CEE region.