Poland said Wednesday it had scrambled aircraft alongside unnamed allies to shoot down drones violating its airspace during a Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine, a first for a NATO country during the war.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X that he had received a report from the Operational Command of the Army about “the shutting down of drones that entered our airspace and could constitute a threat.”
He said he informed the NATO secretary general about actions undertaken by the Polish side.
Poland’s armed forces were on a heightened state of alert overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday because of what they described as “further massive airstrikes against targets located in Ukraine.”
The incursion came as Russia unleashed a barrage of strikes across Ukraine, including in the western city of Lviv, around 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Polish border.
Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members — including Poland — several times during Russia’s three-and-a-half-year war, but a NATO country has never attempted to shoot them down.
A cornerstone of the Western military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.
The operational command of Poland’s military slammed the “unprecedented” airspace violations, saying it had spotted around a dozen drone-type objects and downed some of them.
“This is an act of aggression that has created a real threat to the safety of our citizens,” it said.
Kyiv said Wednesday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was escalating his war on Ukraine and testing the West.
“Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin’s sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X.
“Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West,” Sybiga said. “The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets.”
“A weak response now will provoke Russia even more — and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe,” he added.
The operation came as Polish authorities closed the airspace over part of the country, according to a statement from Warsaw’s main Chopin Airport, where flights were halted.
It also came a day after Poland’s newly elected nationalist President Karol Nawrocki warned that 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.
Last month, Warsaw said a Russian military drone flew into its airspace and exploded in farmland in eastern Poland, calling the incident a “provocation.”
Poland in 2023 said a Russian missile had crossed into its airspace to strike Ukraine.
And in November 2022, two civilians were killed when a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile fell on a village near the border.