Three people who would know called it a cruise missile.

Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk said initial information "clearly indicates" it was "likely a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile" [1]. Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha described it the same way [4]. Al Jazeera's own second story of the day described it the same way: "a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile" that violated NATO airspace [3].

Al Jazeera's other story of the day said something different, and put the word inside Tusk's quotation marks [2]:

"Poland's Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, said it appeared to be a 'Russian Kh-101 ballistic missile'"

What Tusk actually said

Quotation marks are a promise that the words belong to the speaker. Tusk's real words are careful in a way the rendering is not [1]:

"We will want to be 100% certain: what kind of missile, who launched it, whether it was the explosion of the payload or the impact of the missile itself that caused this crater."

A prime minister asking for certainty about the missile type is being quoted asserting the missile type, in a category he did not use.

Why the word matters

A cruise missile flies low, slow and level under its own engine, like a small unmanned aircraft. A ballistic missile is thrown on a high arc and comes down at several times the speed of sound.

That difference is why the Polish air force could do what it did. Radar tracked the object, an F-16 was dispatched at 3:40 a.m., and an Mi-24 helicopter went to find the impact site [1]. Tusk said Poland "were ready to shoot it down had it continued its flight" [2]. Against something arriving ballistically, that sentence would not be available; the interceptor is different and the warning is measured in a couple of minutes.

It also matters because the argument Ukraine is having with its allies this week is specifically about which interceptors arrive and when. Blurring the two categories blurs the request.

What landed, and where

The object came down in a field between Tarnawa-Kolonia and Tokary in Lublin province, roughly 100 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and about 2 kilometres from the nearest buildings [1].

Prosecutor Trusiewicz reported a crater about 5 metres deep, with fragments scattered across roughly 200 metres [1]. Nobody was hurt. Tusk confirmed "there were no casualties or immediate threat to civilians" [1].

The Armed Forces Operational Command said it detected at least a dozen missiles whose trajectories posed potential threats to Polish airspace that night. Defence Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz called it "extremely difficult for our air defence, surveillance and threat detection systems" [1].

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called the incursion "yet another reckless act by Russia and a dangerous consequence" [3].

The night it came from

At least eight people were killed across Ukraine in the wider attack: one in Kyiv, six in Dnipropetrovsk, one in Poltava [2]. The three figures sum to the eight Zelenskyy confirmed.

Two accounts of the same casualties differ and are given here as they were published rather than averaged. Al Jazeera reports 26 injured in Lviv and two apartment buildings damaged; ABC News reports at least 20 injured there [2][4]. Near Kryvyi Rih, Al Jazeera reports "two girls aged five and 12 were among six killed and eight people injured in a direct hit from a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile"; ABC reports "at least 3 children" killed [2][4].

The Iskander-M is a ballistic missile, and Al Jazeera named it correctly in the same article in which it misnamed the Kh-101. The distinction was available.

Zelenskyy's response to the night: "This Russian terror once again proves that protection against the Russian missile threat is the most important task when it comes to saving the lives of our people" [2].