Poland Shoots Down Drones In Its Airspace During Russian Attack On Ukraine

Warsova, September 10 (Reuters) – Poland hit the drones entering the airspace during a widespread Russian attack in Western Ukraine on Wednesday, and called the NATO member attack as “aggression action ve and marked an alliance for the first time in war.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland’s airspace was violated by a large number of Russian aircraft and the direct threats were reduced. A NATO spokesman said that NATO chief Mark Rutte was in contact with the Polish leadership and that the alliance was closely consulted with Poland.

Poland’s Military Command, during the Russian attack in the Western Ukraine during the Russian attack, Drones repeatedly violated the Poland airspace, but the operations against these violations ended, he said.

The radars followed more than 10 objects and they could be threatened, “It was neutralized.”

“Searches and efforts to find the potential collision areas of these objects continue,” he said. The Command thanked the NATO Air Command and the F-35 fighters of the Dutch Air Force.

He called on people to stay at home and call Podskie, Mazowieckie and Lublin regions at risk: “This is an act of aggression that pose a real threat to the safety of our citizens.”

The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comments.

CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins said on Tuesday that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was informed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond immediately to a request for a comment.

NATO has not yet commented on the incident.

Since the war began in 2022, the Russian drones of the states surrounding Ukraine, including Poland and Romania, have had several incidents of Russian drones, but they have avoided hitting them so far.

Authorities expressed the physical danger that such actions could cause and the desire to avoid rise in tensions between Russia and NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia used 415 drones and 40 missiles in the attacks on Ukraine overnight and added at least 8 drones for Poland ”.

“An extremely dangerous precedent for Europe,” he said. “A strong response is required – and there may be a common response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly claimed that Western Europe was a nonsense aimed at depicting Russia as an enemy to NATO members of Russia one day. Russia said there was no intention of fighting the US military alliance.

The largest in the country, the Chopin Airport in Warsaw, closed the airspace for several hours before reopening. He said there would be problems and delays during the day. The airport in Lublin, east of Poland, was closed.

According to Ukraine’s Air Force, most of Ukraine, including the Western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which limited the Polish border, were under air strike warnings over the night.

Previously, the Ukrainian Air Force Russian drones entered the airspace of NATO members and pose a threat to the city of Zamosc, but later removed this statement from the telegram messaging application.

In the United States, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said that the Russian drones have repeatedly violations of the NATO airspace “Vladimir Putin tested our decision to protect Poland and Baltic nations.”

“After the massacre continued to visit Ukraine, these attacks cannot be ignored,” he said.

Republican Representative Joe Wilson, a senior member of the Foreign Committee, said that Russia was “attacking NATO ally Poland with the drones in a mission in X and calling him“ war action ”.

Wilson urged US President Donald Trump to answer the sanctions of the Russian war machine.

“Putin is no longer the content lost in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, but now it is directly testing our determination in the NATO region,” he said.

In August, Trump, who welcomed Putin to the USA for a summit in August, said he was ready to move to a second stage of approved Russia after a peace agreement that lasted for months during the weekend.

In response to the war in Ukraine, it was the most powerful indicator that it could increase pressure on Moscow or oil buyers.

The largest sanction official of the European Union was in Washington on Monday and discussed the first -coordinated transatlantic measures against Russia, because Trump returned to office in January, promising to finish the war within 24 hours.

Since Poland hit a village in Southern Poland in 2022, he killed Russia for a few months for the full -scale occupation of Ukraine, and a high -alert for objects entering the airspace since the hit of a Ukrainian missile into the Southern Poland village.

Poland said that as a result of Russian -led military exercises in Belarus, he would close his border with Belarus at midnight on Thursday.

The large -scale military exercises of Russia and Belarus, known as the “Zapad” exercises, expressed their security concerns in neighboring NATO member states in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Lithuania, Belarus and Russia with the defense of the defenses will be strengthened due to exercises, he said.

(Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, David Shepardson in Washington, Steve Gorman and Andrea Shallal and Charlish in Warsaw, Marek Strzelecki and Pawel Floriewicz;