Russian Missile or UFO? Rumors Swirl After Mystery Object Crashes in Poland

A mysterious object that fell down from the sky near Bydgoszcz, a small town in the northern part of Poland, has fueled a flurry of rumors, speculation and conspiracy theories on social media.

Initial reports by local media claimed the object was a surface-to-air missile with “Cyrillic writing” on it, fueling claims that the missile belonged to the Russian military.

With tensions running high between NATO (of which Poland is a part) and Russia since it invaded Ukraine, the danger is that a potential deliberate or accidental strike on NATO territory could lead to a rapid escalation. In one of the more recent cases, a missile that crossed into Polish territory in November 2022 was later confirmed to have come from a Ukrainian air defense system.

A Thursday, April 27, report by Poland’s RMF24 radio station said that initially the object, discovered on April 24, was thought to be a drone, with “inscriptions in Russian” spotted on the debris. The claim was picked up by Ukrainian outlets, which speculated that the missile was Russian or Soviet-made.

But the initial information vacuum and lack of official commentary also attracted more exotic theories, including that the craft in question was a UFO, potentially of extra-terrestrial origin.

“UFO crashed in Poland, Bydgoszcz,” a Reddit post said. The incident was quickly tied to a number of videos recently posted on Twitter that appeared to show a mysterious UAP flying at high speed, purportedly over Poland.

“Is this the object that crashed in Poland? Recorded same day in the same area. If not, hell of a [coincidence],” wrote the user “think tank” in the caption to the video.

Another video posted by the user appeared to show panoramic footage featuring the same object, but zoomed out. The video interface shows the date of April 21, 2023.

Both videos appear to have been cut from another post, by user KrystianBWB, dated Wednesday, April 26, and accompanied with a caption “Something fell west of Bydgoszcz,” which also included a number of close-up stills from the video. The post, which showed footage recorded with a personal drone, according to the user, received nearly 300,000 views.

Reddit users discussing the crash brought up another alleged “UFO” video, purportedly filmed in the same part of the country, near the town of Gębice, in 2017.

Reports of large “military presence” and temporary restrictions around the crash site, along with an apparent lack of explosion during the object’s fall, added fuel to the conspiracy theories suggesting Polish authorities were “covering up” an alien spaceship crash site.

Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the provenance of the clips purportedly showing the unidentified object (or indeed if it was the same one that crashed in the Polish woods), although the date seen in the clip posted on April 26 suggests it was filmed several days before the discovery of the crash site.

Furthermore, official statements indicate the object was neither a Russian missile nor extra-terrestrial.

“The remains of an unidentified military object were found near the town of Zamość, about 15 km from Bydgoszcz,” a statement by Poland’s Ministry of Defense said on Thursday.

“The situation does not threaten the safety of residents. The site of the crash is being investigated by officers of the Police, Military Police and sappers,” it added.

RMF FM later reported, citing sources in the Polish government, that the “military object” was believed to be a Polish surface-to-air missile that crashed during the testing of the country’s air defense systems.

Zbigniew Ziobro, Poland’s general prosecutor and justice minister, appeared to confirm that the object belonged to the military in a Twitter post.

“The Military Department of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk, under the supervision of the National Prosecutor’s Office, initiated proceedings regarding the remains of an aerial military object found in a forest several kilometers from Bydgoszcz. The scene of the incident, apart from prosecutors, is being investigated by military experts,” Ziobro wrote.

The Gdańsk District Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that “no traces of explosions or explosives were found at the site,” although footage from Poland’s TVN24 channel appeared to show a bomb-disposal unit driving towards the site, accompanied by a digger.

Some have speculated that the object could also be linked to a Polish military compound in Toruń, located around 35 miles from the crash site. Claims of “UFO” sightings and crashes often spike in conflict zones, or areas where military training is being carried out, as Newsweek has reported in the past.

Newsweek reached out to the Polish Defense Ministry and Twitter user KrystianBWB for comment via email.