Ukraine has agreed to train Polish soldiers and engineers in drone defence, according to the countries’ defence ministers.
During a news conference in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Thursday, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Poland would sign a cooperation agreement with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and the training would take place in Lipa, a village in southern Poland.
“We are talking about training engineers and training soldiers who will withstand and defend the air domain,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal said while standing next to Kosiniak-Kamysz.
“We are not only talking about interceptor drones because this is only the tip of this iceberg which allows us to defend our sky together,” Shmyhal added.
The announcement comes a week after Polish and NATO forces shot down more than 20 drones violating the country’s airspace during a Russian aerial attack on neighbouring Ukraine.
Fighter jets fired missiles to take down those drones, a process that costs much more than Russia pays to supply and launch cheap, mass-produced drones.
Russia said its forces had been attacking Ukraine at the time of the drone incursion and it had not intended to hit Polish targets.
Ukraine says it has world-leading capabilities in counteracting large Russian drone attacks cheaply, using a complex layered system involving interceptor drones, heavy machineguns and electronic warfare.
Ukraine, according to Shmyhal, will also provide access to some of its systems for tracking Russian aerial targets so Poland could see what is potentially heading towards its territory.
Training for Polish forces would involve the entire “ecosystem” of how to intercept unmanned enemy aerial vehicles, from identifying their locations and jamming them electronically to downing them with interceptor drones, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been promoting the use of interceptor drones and wants to ramp up their production with Western help.
The post Ukraine pledges to bolster Polish drone defence with training appeared first on Al Jazeera.
