Poland accuses Russia of violating airspace during attack on Ukraine

Poland’s military said Wednesday that the country’s airspace was “repeatedly” violated by drones during a Russian attack on Ukraine.

“During today’s attack by the Russian Federation aimed at targets in Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drones,” the operational command of Poland’s armed forces said in a statement on social media.

It added that operations were underway to “identify and neutralise” some targets and to locate others that had been downed.

The command said earlier that Polish and allied aircraft had been mobilised in response to the Russian attack.

Warsaw’s main Chopin Airport was also closed, according to a US Federal Aviation Administration notice citing “unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security”.

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,” Nawrocki told reporters Tuesday 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”.

AFP