NATO ally scrambles jets twice as Russian drones approach; Warnings issued

NATO aircraft were deployed in Polish airspace in the early hours of the morning as Russian drones were “carrying out strikes on targets in western Ukraine,” the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said.

Poland borders Ukraine to the west and is part of NATO’s eastern flank.

As part of standard procedures, air defense and radar reconnaissance systems were also placed on heightened alert.

The move came after Poland had already scrambled fighter jets and raised the alert level of its air defense systems in the early hours of Tuesday in response to similar Russian strikes.

During the latest incident, Poland’s Government Security Centre issued two alerts. The first was sent to residents of the Lublin and Podkarpackie provinces, while the second was sent to residents in the Lublin and Podkarpackie regions.

The Operational Command said today in a post on X that “selected forces and assets of Poland’s air defense system were briefly placed on heightened alert.”

“The measures were preventive in nature and were aimed at ensuring the security of Polish airspace, particularly in areas bordering zones affected by Russian strikes,” the statement added, according to the Mirror.

In a subsequent post, the command said that fighter jets were continuing operations in response to “additional potential threats to the security of Polish airspace” posed by Russian drones in western Ukraine.

It added that ground-based air defense and radar systems remained at the appropriate level of readiness.

The operation lasted around two hours. During both incidents, there were no recorded violations of Polish airspace or the wider NATO airspace, Blic reported.