Poland deploys planes in its airspace because of threat of drone strikes in nearby Ukraine

WARSAW, Poland — Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in a “preventive” operation in Poland’s airspace Saturday because of a threat of drone strikes in neighboring areas of Ukraine, and the airport in the eastern Polish city of Lublin was closed, authorities said.

The alert lasted around two hours. It came after multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland on Wednesday, prompting NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down and underlining long-held concerns about the expansion of Russia’s more than three-year war in Ukraine.

The Polish military’s operational command posted on X on Saturday afternoon that ground-based air defense and reconnaissance systems were on high alert. It stressed that “these actions are preventive in nature,” and were aimed at securing Poland’s airspace and protecting the country’s citizens. It cited a threat of drone strikes in regions of Ukraine bordering Poland, but didn’t give further details.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk also posted that “preventive air operations” had begun in Polish airspace because of the threat posed by Russian drones operating over nearby areas of Ukraine. The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said that Lublin Airport was closed to air traffic “due to military aviation activities,” and the government security center warned of a threat of air attack for several border counties in the region.

Later Saturday, the military’s operational command wrote on X that the operation “has been completed” and that ground-based defense and reconnaissance systems had returned to normal.

Russia has said it didn’t target Poland on Wednesday, and Moscow’s ally, Belarus, said that the drones went astray because they were jammed. But European leaders have expressed certainty that the incursions were a deliberate provocation by Russia.

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Polish aircraft have been scrambled repeatedly in recent months to patrol the country’s airspace in connection with Russian airstrikes in Ukraine, but those strikes have usually occurred overnight or in the early morning.

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Separately, Romania said it deployed two F-16 jets to intercept a drone that briefly entered its airspace on Saturday afternoon.

“The drone did not fly over inhabited areas and did not represent an imminent danger to the security of the population,” the NATO member’s defense ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that teams of specialists would conduct searches for potential debris. Romanian authorities didn’t specify where they thought the drone originated from.