(Warsaw) – NATO is studying the possibility of shooting down Russian missiles that come too close to NATO borders, Poland's deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday, two days after Poland announced a violation of its airspace.
Warsaw said on Sunday that a Russian cruise missile fired overnight towards towns in western Ukraine had penetrated Polish airspace for 39 seconds.
The Polish Defense Minister confirmed that Poland had activated all its anti-aircraft systems and that the missile could have been shot down if there had been the slightest indication that it was heading towards a target on Polish territory.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Sejna on Tuesday told local radio RMF24 that “various concepts are being analyzed within NATO” since this incident, “including shooting down these missiles when they are very close to NATO borders,” of which Poland is a country. member.
“But this can only be done with the consent of the Ukrainian side and taking into account the international consequences,” Mr. Cigna added.
Warsaw expressed, on Monday, its regret that the Russian ambassador to Poland ignored an official summons from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs following the missile accident.
Poland then said that Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski had discussed the matter with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
A senior NATO official said on Tuesday that Stoltenberg noted during the phone interview that NATO had significantly increased its vigilance and strengthened its positions on the alliance's eastern flank, especially in Poland.
At the end of last December, Poland announced that a Russian missile had entered its airspace before leaving a few minutes later towards Ukraine.
A year earlier, in December 2022, another Russian Kh-55 cruise missile, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, crashed in Poland, but its remains were only found in April 2023 by a passerby in a forest. Near Bydgoszcz in the north, about 500 people. Kilometers from the eastern border of the country.
In November 2022, two people were killed when a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile fell on the Polish village of Przevodov, close to the Ukrainian border.
