Poland shoots down drones in its airspace during Russian attack on Ukraine

Poland scrambled its own and NATO air defences to shoot down drones in its airspace on Wednesday after a Russian air attack on Ukraine, marking the first time that Warsaw has got involved in the war in its neighbouring nation as it called the violation an act of aggression.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said operations were ongoing and that he was in “constant contact” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Tusk has called for an emergency meeting of the council of ministers at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT), a government spokesman said.

Poland’s military command said drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace during the Russian attack across the border, in western Ukraine.

Radars tracked more than 10 objects and those that could pose a threat were “neutralised,” the command said.

“Some of the drones that entered our airspace were shot down. Searches and efforts to locate the potential crash sites of these objects are ongoing,” it said in a statement.

It urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk, adding: “This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.”

Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been briefed, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said on Tuesday. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chopin airport in Warsaw, the country’s largest, announced that its airspace was closed due to military actions.

Flightradar24 tracking data showed a number of flights due to land early Wednesday morning at Chopin were diverting to airports in Poland’s Katowice, Wroclaw and Poznan.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration earlier said Chopin was one of four Polish airports to be temporarily closed, including Rzeszow–Jasionka Airport in the southeast, a hub for passenger and arms transfers to Ukraine.

Most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv which border Poland, had been under air raid alerts for nearly all night, according to Ukraine’s air force.

Read more: NATO-Ukraine Council to discuss response to Russian strikes

Earlier, Ukraine’s air force reported that Russian drones had entered NATO-member Poland’s airspace, posing a threat to the city of Zamosc, but it subsequently removed that statement from the Telegram messaging app.

‘ACT OF WAR’

In the United States, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones were a sign that Russian President “Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations.”

“After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored,” he said on X.

Republican representative Joe Wilson, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a post on X that Russia was “attacking NATO ally Poland” with drones, calling it an “act of war”.

Wilson urged U.S. President Donald Trump to respond with sanctions “that will bankrupt the Russian war machine”.

“Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in NATO territory,” he said.

Trump, who warmly welcomed Putin to the United States for a summit in August, said over the weekend he was ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia after months of fruitless talks about a peace deal.

It was his strongest indication yet that he may escalate pressure on Moscow or its oil buyers in response to the war in Ukraine.

The European Union’s top sanctions official was in Washington on Monday to discuss what would be the first coordinated transatlantic measures against Russia since Trump returned to office in January promising to end the war in 24 hours.

Poland has been on high alert for objects entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile struck a southern Polish village in 2022, killing two people, a few months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But there have been no reports of Polish or allied defence systems destroying drones.

Poland earlier said it would close its border with Belarus on Thursday at midnight local time as a result of Russia-led military exercises taking place in Belarus.

Russia and Belarus’ large-scale military exercises, known as the “Zapad” drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring NATO member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Lithuania said defences along its border with Belarus and Russia would be strengthened due to the exercises.

Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, said the number of incursions by Russian drones into NATO airspace “make it clear that these are intentional tests of NATO and national air defenses and early warning systems”.

“We need to be able to respond effectively, each time,” Hodges told Reuters, adding: “We certainly could be doing more”.