‘Act of aggression’ – Poland shoots down drones in its airspace during Russian attack on Ukraine

Poland shoots down drones in its airspace during Russian attack on Ukraine
Poland scrambled its own and NATO air defences to shoot down drones in its airspace on Wednesday after a Russian air attack on Ukraine, marking the first time that Warsaw has got involved in the war in its neighbouring nation as it called the violation an act of aggression.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said operations were ongoing and that he was in “constant contact” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Tusk has called for an emergency meeting of the council of ministers at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT), a government spokesman said.Poland’s military command said drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace during the Russian attack across the border, 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,” it said in a statement.It urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk, adding: “This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.”Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk with Sir Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been briefed, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said on Tuesday. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Chopin airport in Warsaw, the country’s largest, announced that its airspace was closed due to military actions.Flightradar24 tracking data showed a number of flights due to land early Wednesday morning at Chopin were diverting to airports in Poland’s Katowice, Wroclaw and Poznan.

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration earlier said Chopin was one of four Polish airports to be temporarily closed, including Rzeszow–Jasionka Airport in the southeast, a hub for passenger and arms transfers to Ukraine.Most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv which border Poland, had been under air raid alerts for nearly all night, according to Ukraine’s air force.Earlier, Ukraine’s air force reported that Russian drones had entered NATO-member Poland’s airspace, posing a threat to the city of Zamosc, but it subsequently removed that statement from the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters