Poland’s military said it scrambled its own and NATO allied air defences to shoot down Russian drones after they crossed from neighbouring Ukraine, the first time in the Ukraine war that Warsaw has engaged Russian assets in its airspace.
“During today’s attack by the Russian Federation targeting objects on the territory of Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drone-type objects,” Poland’s military command said in a statement.
“An operation is under way aimed at identifying and neutralising these objects … weapons have been used, and service personnel are carrying out actions to locate the downed objects.”
Poland’s army said that the entry of drones into the country’s airspace was an “act of aggression” that threatened the safety of the public and which required the objects to be shot down.
“This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens,” the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said on X.
It said the military operation was ongoing and urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie and Lublin as most at risk.
“The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the situation, and subordinate forces and units remain on full readiness for immediate response,” it added.
A government spokesperson said that an emergency meeting would be held later this morning.
Warsaw’s main Chopin Airport said due to actions of state services and the military to ensure safety, the airspace over part of Poland, including the airport, has been temporarily closed.
“The airport remains open, but no flight operations are currently taking place,” Chopin Airport said in a post on social media platform X.
A translated post on X by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (credit: Reuters)
According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, a total of four airports were closed in the country.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said the Rzeszow–Jasionka Airport in Poland’s southeast, a hub for passenger and arms transfers to Ukraine, was among the airports that had been temporarily closed.
Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been briefed on reports of Russian drones over Poland, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.
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.
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.
As of 3.20am Irish time, most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, had been under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukraine’s air force.
The Polish President Karol Nawrocki
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,” Mr Nawrocki told reporters yesterday at a press conference in Helsinki.
“We believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to also invade other countries.”
NATO-member Poland, a major supporter of Ukraine, hosts over a million Ukrainian refugees and is a key transit point for Western humanitarian and military aid to the war-torn country.
Russian drones and missiles have crossed into the airspace of NATO members Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania several times during the three-and-a-half-year war.
Last month, Warsaw said a Russian military drone flew into its airspace and exploded in farmland in eastern Poland, calling the incident a “provocation”.