Poland said it scrambled its own and Nato air defences to shoot down drones over its territory after repeated violations of its airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine, marking the first time in the war that Warsaw has engaged Russian assets in its airspace.
“An operation is under way related to the repeated violation of Polish airspace,” prime minister Donald Tusk wrote on X early on Wednesday. “The military has used weaponry against the objects.” He said he was in “constant contact” with President Karol Nawrocki and the operational commander.
The announcement came after Poland closed airports and the army said it had launched an operation “to neutralise” objects that crossed over its border.
Poland’s army called the violation of the nation’s airspace an “act of aggression“, while defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Polish aircraft had “used weapons against hostile objects,” adding that he was in touch with Nato’s command.
Chopin Airport in Warsaw, the country’s largest, announced that its airspace was closed due to military actions, 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.
The first reports about possible violations of the Polish airspace emerged late on Tuesday night after Ukraine’s air force said that Russian drones had entered Poland’s airspace, posing a threat to the city of Zamość. It subsequently removed that statement from the Telegram messaging app.
In the United States, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said repeated violations of Nato airspace by Russian drones 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,” he said on X.
The alleged incursion comes a day after Poland’s newly elected nationalist president Karol Nawrocki 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 Tuesday at a press conference in Helsinki.
Poland has been on high alert for objects 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 there have been no reports of Polish or allied defence systems destroying drones.
The incident comes shortly before Russia and Belarus are set to begin military drills on Friday, which have raised security concerns in the region.
On Tuesday, Poland said it would close its border with Belarus as a precautionary measure, with neighbouring Lithuania also declaring it would step up its border controls.
With Reuters