Poland says that Russian drones knocked down their airspace during the attack on Ukraine

Poland said Wednesday that, together with NATO’s allies, he had scrambled the combat planes to knock down multiple Russian drones that entered his airspace during Moscow’s last attack against Ukraine.

“Last night, the Polish airspace was raped by a large number of Russian drones,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a social media post. “Those drones that raised a direct threat were demolished. I am in constant communication with the secretary general of NATO and our allies.”

The Army of Poland said it stirred the plane to tear down “hostile objects” in the Polish airspace, the first for an NATO country during the war. The army, in an X publication, called it “an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone objects” and an “act of aggression that represented a real threat to the safety of our citizens.”

The main diplomat of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, said that the first indications suggested that the incursion of Russian drones in Poland’s airspace was intentional.

“Last night in Poland we saw the rape of the most serious European airspace by Russia since the war began, and the indications suggest that it was intentional, not accidental,” Kallas said in a statement. “The EU is in full solidarity with Poland. Russia’s war is increasing, not ending. We must increase the cost for Moscow, strengthen support for Ukraine and invest in the defense of Europe.”

In a statement published on social networks, an NATO spokesman said that the combat aircraft of the Netherlands were deployed and helped demolish drones, confirming that it was “the first time that NATO planes have involved potential threats in allied airspace.”

In addition to the direct response of the Poles and Dutch combat aircraft, the German patriotic missiles based in Poland “were alerted”, and also launched an Italian early alert plane and an NATO fuel replenishment plane, according to the NATO spokesman’s statement, Colonel Martin L. O’Donnell.

“NATO responded quickly and decisively to the situation, demonstrating our ability and resolution to defend the allied territory,” said General Alexus G. Grynkewich, NATO commander for Europe, in a statement shared with News themezone.

“My gratitude and congratulations to the Polish operational command and our NATO pilots for demolishing Russian drones about Poland,” said Poland’s fang in a publication of subsequent social networks. “The actions speak more than the words.”

The apparent drones and Russian missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members previously, including those of Poland, several times during The three and a half years of Russiabut no NATO country had tried to break them down.

A cornerstone of the Western Military Alliance of NATO is the principle that an attack against any member is considered an attack against all. An NATO source told the Reuters news agency that the Alliance was not trying to incurs the Russian drones in the Polish territory as an attack, but it seemed to have been deliberate.

Tusk told Poland’s Parliament that the authorities had identified 19 airspace rapes in the country during the night and demolished at least three drones, adding that no one was harmed in the “Russian action.”

Tusk said Poland had made a “formal request to invoke article 4” of the Founding Treaty of the NATO Alliance. According to article 4, any member can call urgent conversations when he feels that his “territorial integrity, political independence or security” are at risk.

The Polish case marked the eighth time that the article has been invoked since the Alliance was founded in 1949, and the third time was invoked article 4 to address the incursions of Russia and Invasion of Ukraine.

NATO collective security is based on article 5, which establishes that if a member is attacked, the entire alliance will defend itself. That article has only been invoked once in the history of NATO, for the United States, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The Poland’s army said the efforts were “underway to search and locate the possible accident sites of these objects” and “the operational command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the current situation, and the Poles and Allied forces and assets remain fully prepared for other actions.”

The Polish Police said the officers had discovered a damaged drone in the Eastern Village of CzosNowka, according to Reuters, and there were reports that a building was damaged by a drone or debris that fall in another Polish city of the East, but there were no reports of any injury.

Hours later, the Poland’s army said in X that the operations had concluded, but the search for fallen drones continued. “We urge that in case of observing an unknown object or its debris, they do not approach, touch or move it. Such elements can represent a threat and contain hazardous materials. They must be thoroughly inspected by the appropriate services,” the military warned.

The Polish government announced that it would hold an “extraordinary” meeting on Wednesday morning.

The incursion occurred when Russia unleashed a flood of strikes in Ukraine, even in the western city of Lviv, about 50 miles from the Polish border.

Warnings of more Russian aggression

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that eight Russian drones were “aimed at” Poland in a night flood that forced Warsaw to pull the aerial defenses. “It was not just a Shahed who could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones addressed to Poland,” Zelensky said, referring to drones designed by Iran deployed by Moscow, and added that the incident represented “an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe.”

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga warned about X that Russian President Vladimir Putin “continues to increase, expanding his war and testing the West. The more he does not face the force in response, the more aggressive he receives. A weak response will now cause Russia even more, and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even more in Europe.”

The newly elected nationalist president of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, issued a warning in the same line on Tuesday, saying at a press conference in Helsinki that “we do not trust the good intentions of Vladimir Putin. We believe that Vladimir Putin is also ready to invade other countries.”

The head of the European Union, Ursula, said that Moscow had carried out an “reckless and unprecedented” violation of the Polish airspace.

And the main diplomat of the EU, Kaja Kallas, published on Wednesday in X on Wednesday that “we saw the rape of the most serious European airspace by Russia since the war began, and the indications suggest that it was intentional, not accidental. The EU remains in full solidarity with Poland. The War of Russia is climbing, does not end.”

The NATO Poland member, an important defender of Ukraine, houses more than one million Ukrainian refugees and is a key transit point for Western humanitarian and military aid for the country devastated by war.

Last month, Warsaw said that a Russian military drone fell to his airspace and exploded in cultivation lands in East Poland and represented the incident as a “provocation.” In 2023, Poland said a Russian missile had crossed his airspace to hit Ukraine. And in November 2022, two civilians were killed when a Ukrainian anti -aircraft missile fell into a village near the border.

• War
• Ukraine
• Russia
• Vladimir Putin
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy
• Poland
• NATO