Poland has briefly closed part of its airspace southeast of capital Warsaw, citing “unplanned military activity”, as Russia launches a new wave of strikes against Ukraine.
The deployment on Sunday of Polish and allied aircraft in the country’s airspace comes as the transatlantic security bloc NATO announced that it is upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea in response to drone incursions in Denmark and reported drone sightings in Norway.
The latest developments highlight the increased tension in the region, as diplomatic efforts to resolve the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine falter, raising fears of a wider conflict spilling into Europe.
In the latest incident, the Polish armed forces said it scrambled aircraft to ensure the security of its airspace after Russia launched strikes on Ukraine.
It described the actions as preventive and aimed at securing airspace and protecting citizens.
The closure of the airspace in the cities of Lublin and Rzeszow was expected to last until early morning.
According to Ukraine’s air force, air raid alerts were in effect across the country as of 03:00 GMT on Sunday in response to Russian strikes.
Earlier this month, Polish and NATO forces intercepted Russian drones which entered Poland’s airspace, marking their first direct military engagement with Moscow since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov warned NATO and the European Union that “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response”.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Saturday, Lavrov insisted that Moscow had no plans to attack the West, but that it was prepared to act if provoked.
On Saturday, NATO announced that it was upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea with an air-defence frigate and other assets, including “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms” in response to a string of incidents in Denmark.
According to Denmark, unidentified drones were observed near military installations overnight on Saturday.
Late on Monday, Copenhagen airport, the Nordic region’s busiest, was also forced to close for several hours as several large drones were seen in its airspace. Five smaller Danish airports, both civilian and military, were also shut temporarily in the following days.
Danish authorities have called the incursions hybrid attacks, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this week it was “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date”.
In neighbouring Norway, police said on Saturday they were investigating possible drone sightings near the country’s Oerland air force base in the central region, the main base for Norway’s F-35 jets.
“The guards at the base made several observations outside the base’s perimeter early on Saturday,” a spokesperson at the Norwegian armed forces’ joint headquarters told the Reuters news agency.
In a separate statement to the AFP news agency, Brynjar Stordal said, “The sightings are probably drones but the investigation will find out what it was.”
“At least two drones” flew in a restricted area near the base “for around an hour” before disappearing, he said.
In Germany, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Saturday that a drone “swarm” was spotted on Friday over the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark.
He said he wants to revise air safety laws to allow the armed forces to shoot down drones.
On Friday, defence ministers from about 10 EU nations announced that they want to prioritise building a so-called “drone wall” to secure their borders.
In response, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the measures would lead to “an increase in military and political tensions on our continent”, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
The ministry added that the plans amounted to “personal ambitions and political games of the EU’s ruling elites”.
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