Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has pledged to push ahead with a “great modernisation programme” for his country’s military, a day after Polish and NATO forces shot down drones violating the country’s airspace during a Russian aerial attack on neighbouring Ukraine.
The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency announced on Thursday that Poland had introduced air traffic restrictions along its eastern borders with Belarus and Ukraine. It said the step was taken at the request of the Polish army for national security reasons, but did not elaborate.
The restrictions will apply until December 9, Polish air traffic authorities said. Under the rules, civilian unmanned aircraft, such as drones, are banned; general aviation – mainly small and recreational aircraft and helicopters – can operate during the day provided they have a radio and transponder, but cannot fly at night.
Tusk said on Wednesday that the drone incursion incident was “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II,” though he also said he had “no reason to believe we’re on the brink of war”.
European officials described Wednesday’s incursion, which occurred during a wave of recent relentless Russian strikes on Ukraine, as a deliberate provocation, forcing the NATO alliance to confront a potential threat in its airspace for the first time. Neither Poland nor NATO has yet given a full account of what they suspect the drones were doing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed Kyiv’s allies on Thursday for a tougher response to the incursion into Poland, saying the move was likely aimed at slowing supplies of air defences to Ukraine ahead of this winter.
Zelenskyy, speaking at a briefing in Kyiv alongside Finnish President Alexander Stubb, also urged allies to rethink their own air defence capabilities, adding that missile-based systems are too expensive to use against cheaper drones.
Credit: aljazeera.com
