Drones entering Polish skies from east should be downed - defence minister
Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Tuesday the country's army should intercept drones breaching the airspace from the east, adding that the final decision lies with the Operational Command.
The comment came a day after debris from a drone bearing Cyrillic markings was found in the village of Polatycze, eastern Poland, overnight Sunday to Monday, about 300 metres from the Belarusian border. The incident followed a similar case in the same Lubelskie province, when drone rubble was discovered 50 kilometres from the country's border with war-gripped Ukraine last Saturday. Authorities said the first drone bore no military markings, the second was a smuggling one.
Furthermore, in August, a drone entered Poland from Belarus and blasted in the corn field of the Lubelskie province. Kosiniak-Kamysz said at the time that the object was most likely a Russian drone and described the incident as "a provocation by the Russian Federation."
Talking to a private broadcaster Radio Zet on Tuesday, Kosiniak-Kamysz said that the decision to down foreign drones requires "discernment and skill," noting that Poland, which borders an ongoing war, usually deals with armed, decoy, or smuggling drones.
"This is a difficult decision... There are days when over 800 drones fly over Ukraine. The incidents that have occurred in Poland since the armed conflict entered its fourth year are unfolding in other countries as well, and each is considering how to respond," he continued.
He added that "This is an operational commander and the entire air defence system who have to decide on whether the (drone - PAP) interception causes greater or lesser damage to civilians."
He further addressed the locals of the towns and villages bordering countries on the east, pledging that the services will take all measures possible to ensure their safety amid Russian attacks on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Maciej Duszczyk, the deputy minister of internal affairs, echoed Kosiniak-Kamysz's claim on Tuesday that the drones landing on Polish soil are most likely decoys and announced that Warsaw requested the European Commission to facilitate the construction of the so-called "drone wall."
"We also applied last week to the European Commission for funding, probably for a large part of this drone barrier," the official said in an interview for the state-run TVP Info channel, referring to Poland's joint project with the Baltics, Finland and Norway.
Duszczyk said that even when these weapons enter the country's airspace, they do not pose a threat to Poland, as they soon redirect toward Ukraine to attack its west.
"The cost of downing them might be higher than simply letting them fly," he added.
Speaking about the smuggling drones, Duszczyk explained that most of them enter Poland illegally, carrying untaxed cigarettes from Belarus and end up in the hands of Polish border officers. The recent ones, however, were not of this type. (PAP)
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