Poland scrambled its own and Nato air defences to shoot down drones that entered its airspace on Wednesday during a Russian attack on Ukraine in what the Polish army called an “act of aggression” as Warsaw got involved in the war in its neighbouring country for the first time.
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said early on Thursday that operations were continuing and that he was in “constant contact” with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte. Tusk called for an emergency meeting of the council of ministers at 8am local time, a government spokesman said.
“An operation is under way related to the repeated violation of Polish airspace,” Tusk posted early on Wednesday. “The military has used weaponry against the objects.”
Poland’s military command also said drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace during the Russian attack in western Ukraine.
Radars tracked more than 10 objects and those that could pose a threat were “neutralised”, the command said.
“Some of the drones that entered our airspace were shot down. Searches and efforts to locate the potential crash sites of these objects are ongoing.”
Chopin airport in Warsaw, the country’s largest, announced its airspace was closed due to military action, while guidance published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) showed three others were also shut due to “unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security”. Among them were a smaller port in the eastern city of Lublin, and a key logistics and arms transfer hub in the south-eastern city of Rzeszów.
Most of Ukraine – including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland – was under air raid alerts nearly all night, according to Ukraine’s air force.
In the US, the Democratic senator Dick Durbin said the repeated violations were a sign that “Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations”.
“After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored,” Durbin posted online.
The incursions came a day after Poland’s newly elected nationalist president warned that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was ready to invade more countries after launching his war in Ukraine.
“We do not trust Vladimir Putin’s good intentions,” Nawrocki told reporters on Tuesday at a press conference in Helsinki.
After Donald Trump warmly welcomed Putin to Alaska for a summit in August, the US president said over the weekend that he was ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia after months of fruitless talks about a peace deal.
It was his strongest indication yet that he may escalate pressure on Moscow or its oil buyers in response to the war in Ukraine.
Poland has been on alert for craft entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile struck a southern Polish village in 2022, killing two people, a few months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But until Wednesday there had been no previous reports of Polish or allied defence systems destroying drones.
The incident comes shortly before Russia and Belarus on Friday begin military drills that have raised security concerns in the region.
On Tuesday, Poland said it would close its border with Belarus due to the “very aggressive” exercises, called Zapad, as well as the growing number of provocations from Russian and Belarus. Neighbouring Lithuania declared it would step up its border controls.
With Reuters
