Poland: ‘Everything indicates’ a Russian missile briefly entered its airspace and left
- Poland’s defence forces said the object penetrated about 40km into its airspace on Friday and left it after less than three minutes.
- Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said he had spoken to Poland’s president about the ‘missile incident’ and that Nato was monitoring the situation
Poland’s defence forces said an unknown object entered the country’s airspace on Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile.
“Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland’s airspace. It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace. We have confirmation of this on radars and from allies” in Nato, said Poland’s armed forces chief, General Wiesław Kukuła.
Poland’s defence forces said the object penetrated about 40km (24 miles) into its airspace and left it after less than three minutes. The defence forces said both its radar and Nato radar confirmed that the object left Polish airspace.
Kukula said steps were being taken to verify those findings and eliminate the possibility of a technical error.
Russia’s diplomat in Warsaw, after being summoned to Poland’s foreign ministry, said Poland has provided no proof of a border violation caused by a Russian missile, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
“I was handed a note which contained an unsubstantiated claim that allegedly on the morning of 29th December, an airborne object violated Polish airspace, which Polish specialists identified as a Russian guided missile,” RIA quoted diplomat Andrei Ordash as saying.
“No proof was presented. My request for documented proof of what was in the note was refused.”