A missile, likely a Russian Kh-101, left a 10-meter crater in a field near Lublin, while Ukrainian drones strike e-commerce giant's warehouses, targeting Russia's second-largest bank. NATO activated Polish airspace defense.
In the early morning of July 30, 2026, a projectile suspected by Polish authorities to be a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile fell in an uninhabited field near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the Lublin Voivodeship of Poland. The impact created a crater ten meters wide. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk personally visited the site and stated that all indicators point to a Russian missile, but that they want to be 100 percent certain of the type of projectile and who launched it. He emphasized that there was no direct threat because the missile fell in an uninhabited area and that the Polish Air Force was ready to shoot it down had it continued its flight, as reported by ZeroHedge.
The incident occurred while Polish forces were on high alert, and sirens sounded in some border areas. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte later announced that the Alliance had activated Poland's air and land defenses.
That same morning, Russia carried out one of its largest attacks on Ukraine, hitting Kyiv and nine regions, including the westernmost Lviv Oblast. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that at least eight people were killed and dozens injured in the attacks. He highlighted the shortage of anti-aircraft missiles from allies but praised the soldiers who "do the seemingly impossible, showing a very high level of professionalism," as reported by ZeroHedge.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine's air defense intercepted 265 drones and 55 missiles, while preliminary reports indicate that 11 missiles and 17 drones hit 20 locations. The EUobserver portal, however, provides slightly different figures: 61 Kh-101/Kalibr missiles were launched, of which 54 were shot down, and in a separate wave, 284 drones flew. Both sources agree it was an exceptionally powerful strike.
That same morning, Ukrainian drones continued their campaign against logistics centers of Russian retail giant Wildberries, attacking warehouses in Penza, about 600 kilometers from the front line, and in Sarapul, over 1,300 kilometers from the front. A drone also attempted to strike a warehouse in St. Petersburg but was shot down at the last moment, according to EUobserver. In the past two weeks, Ukrainians have hit at least 12 Wildberries warehouses, reducing the company's total storage capacity by about ten percent.
The official reason for the attacks is that Wildberries sold military equipment on its platform, including vests, drones, optical cables, and components for unmanned aerial vehicles. The category "Everything for the SVO" contained over 200,000 items. Although the company removed this category this week, the attacks continue, and their real goal may be more far-reaching: to shake the Russian banking system.
Denys Shtilerman, director of Ukrainian company FirePoint, whose drones target Wildberries, told EUobserver: "Now we must finish off Wildberries and Ozon, this is absolutely necessary. It would lead to the collapse of the banking system."
He explained that Russia's second-largest state bank, VTB, formed a strategic partnership with Wildberries in the spring, making the company closer to the state than before. "VTB put everything on Wildberries. It expected to automatically acquire Wildberries' entire customer base of about 50-60 million as its own clients. VTB was already in a precarious position, and now loans worth trillions of rubles will be irretrievably lost. This could cause the collapse of Russia's second-largest bank," Shtilerman said.
Financial analyst Andriy Shevchyshyn told RBC Ukraine that sellers on Wildberries lost goods worth between $1 billion and $1.3 billion (about €1.1 billion), while total damage reaches $2 billion. Wildberries amended its business terms in early July, classifying fires and explosions as force majeure, and the company does not cover seller losses. Given that the average annual income of Russian sellers on the platform is only $7,500, many face bankruptcy, RBC Ukraine reports.
Independent Russian portal The Bell, cited by EUobserver, assessed that the psychological and political impact of attacks on online marketplaces is greater than that on refineries. "Online marketplaces are part of the daily life of tens of millions of Russians. An attack on Wildberries warehouses affects Russians' sense of normalcy much more than reports of damage to yet another factory in the distant Volga region," the analysis states.
While escalation continues on all fronts, the Ukrainian Air Force is suffering losses. On July 29, 2026, Ukraine lost another F-16 fighter jet in a combat mission; the pilot ejected and survived. According to EUobserver, this is the fifth lost F-16 out of about fifty delivered to Kyiv. A day earlier, on July 28, the United States confirmed that a Ukrainian F-16 shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter, the first documented air duel of the war.
Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine told EUobserver: "We recently witnessed the first air-to-air kill, when a Ukrainian F-16 shot down a Russian fighter jet, so I believe their ability to expand layered defense has significantly improved over the past two years."
German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, cited by Tass, warns that the loss of each individual F-16 is a heavy blow to Kyiv because Ukraine cannot produce them itself.
While the incident in Poland is still being investigated, NATO launched an initiative at a summit in Ankara that same day to align industrial production with military capability priorities. Additionally, the U.S. decision to move 5,000 troops from Germany to Poland further heightened tensions in Eastern Europe.
In Poland, however, local farmers remain composed. "Some kind of missile. Things are constantly flying around here," one resident told the Slavyangrad channel, adding that he was only about a kilometer from the impact site. He was not quick to assign blame.
These events, while not directly affecting Croatia, highlight the growing risk of the war spilling onto NATO allies' territory, which indirectly affects the security of all members, including Croatia. Ukraine's campaign targeting the Russian economy and banking system could, along with its psychological impact, weaken Russia's war machine in the long term.
