Polish airspace violated twice by drones last night, announces military chief

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland recorded two violations of its airspace by drones last night, its military leadership has revealed. Both objects were closely monitored and left Polish territory without causing any damage.

The incidents took place amid this week’s large-scale Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, Poland’s eastern neighbour. They also came two weeks after another drone – later confirmed to be Russian – exploded in eastern Poland.

“Unfortunately, we had a situation where Polish airspace was violated twice,” announced the chief of Poland’s general staff, Wiesław Kukuła, at a press conference on Thursday alongside defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.

However, he added that the drones had been constantly tracked over Polish territory by “both national and…allied resources” and later left Poland’s airspace without causing any damage, reports broadcaster TVN.

This meant that there was no need to shoot them down, explained the general, adding that doing so could also have posed a risk to people on the ground

Kukuła did not reveal what types of drones had been detected, their origin, nor where the incidents had taken place. However, he said that one reason for not providing more details was that “the recipient of this type of information is Russia [and] we don’t want to make their work easier”.

The incident occured on the night following mass attacks by Russia on western Ukraine involving over 500 drones and 24 missiles, according to the Ukrainian air force. In response, Polish and allied aircraft were scrambled in Poland, as often happens during large-scale Russian aerial bombardment of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, last night saw further attacks by Russia on north, east and south Ukraine involving over 100 drones.

Kukuła noted that, last night Dutch aircraft had been involved in reconnaissance and security operations over Poland. He expressed “thanks to the excellent Dutch pilots for their commitment and contribution to the defence of Polish skies, which we could see last night”.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Polish airspace has been violated several times, including by Russian missiles and observation balloons, as well as Belarusian helicopters. In 2022, a stray Ukrainian missile landed in Poland, killing two people.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: MON (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.