Polish army downs drones violating its airspace
Polish armed forces, accompanied by allied aircraft, have shot down multiple likely Russian drones which entered its airspace overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday during a massive aerial attack Russia launched on Ukraine.
The incident prompted Prime Minister Donald Tusk to call an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning. He also attended a briefing led by President Karol Nawrocki.
According to Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who cut short his visit to London where he was to attend a meeting with his British, French, German and Italian counterparts, said that drones which posed a real threat were shot down during a response operation by Polish and allied air forces.
Poland's strategic energy infrastructure was not damaged during the incident, Energy Minister Milosz Motyka said on Wednesday, and the education ministry announced that all students could go to schools as normal.
Law enforcement and emergency services, including police, border guard and fire service, accompanied by Territorial Defence Forces (WOT), in the eastern and southern provinces of Podlaskie, Lubelskie, and Podkarpackie as well as the central Mazowieckie province were put on high alert and activated to search for the debris.
On Wednesday morning Tusk wrote on X: "Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down. I am in constant communication with the Secretary General of NATO and our allies."
Earlier, Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk reported that Tusk had travelled to "the scene of operations".
The violation of Polish airspace by likely Russian drones was first reported by the Operational Command of the Armed Forces (DORSZ) at 4am on Wednesday morning. "An operation is ongoing to identify and neutralise the objects. As ordered by DORSZ, weaponry has been used and state services activated to search for the shot down objects," DORSZ wrote on X.
Just before 8am, DORSZ announced that the joint operation conducted by Polish and allied aircraft had concluded.
The Lubelskie police department reported that the first remnants of a downed drone were found in the village of Czosnowka near the eastern city of Biala Podlaska. Another drone damaged the roof of a residential building in the village of Wyryki.
Four Polish airports, in Rzeszow, Lublin, Warsaw and Warsaw-Modlin, grounded flights for the duration of the military operation, with some LOT flights redirected to other airports. The Chopin Warsaw Airport reopened its operations at 8am.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the presidential national security advisor, has been made aware of the violation of Polish airspace.
Republican Representative Joe Wilson wrote on X that the drone intrusion should prompt US President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Russia "that will bankrupt the Russian war machine."
"Repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones are fair warning that Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations," Democratic Senator Dick Durbin wrote in reaction to the incident, also on X.(PAP)wpb/mf
