Wednesday saw Poland and NATO scramble fighter jets to shoot down what was reportedly a Russian drone that had travelled above Polish territory in an overnight assault on western Ukraine, the first time the Western military bloc fired shots since the full-scale invasion of Russia.
At another emergency meeting of the government later in the day, Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that 19 of what he called objects had flown over Polish airspace, and three Russian drones that were thought to have endangered civilian lives were shot down. Nonetheless, the specifics of the event are unclear, and we do not know what sort of Russian drones were involved in the air invasion.
The Defence Ministry of Russia subsequently announced that it had launched a wave of airstrikes throughout Ukraine overnight, also into the Western City of Lviv, approximately 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Polish border. However, it claimed that it did not plan to attack Poland, and it did not claim its drones had flown within the airspace.
“Nevertheless, we are ready to hold consultations with the Polish Defence Ministry about this issue,” the Russian military said in a statement.
The Defence Minister of Russia asserted that its drones involved in the overnight strikes had a range of 700 kilometres (435 miles), hence could not have flown to Poland. Nonetheless, the eastern border of Poland is less than 600 kilometres from western Russia, indicating that the state is within firing range.
The incursion of the drone in Poland did not report any injuries or deaths. In pictures published by local media, firefighters and police in the village of Wyryki in the eastern part of the country were scanning the impact of a drone that crashed.
The incident had temporarily shut part of the Polish airspace and the flights at Warsaw Chopin Airport, the main airport of the country.
“This act of aggression posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens,” the Polish military’s operational command said in a statement, calling the airspace violation “unprecedented”.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, meanwhile, said fighter jets from the Netherlands provided support during the shoot-down operation on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga had commented that the incident proved that a failure to seriously respond to past Russian acts internationally had given President Vladimir Putin the confidence to commit this act.
“The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets,” Sybiga said. “A weak response now will provoke Russia even more- and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe.”
U.S President Donald Trump answered the shootdown in the uncharacteristically brief fashion in Truth Social, writing: “What’s with Russia droning into Polish airspace? Here we go!”