Russia likely testing Poland's air defense – expert

Jaroslaw Kraszewski, a former commander of the missile forces and artillery of the Polish Land Forces, said this in a comment to an Ukrinform correspondent.

 “I believe it was a provocation on the part of Russia,” the expert said.

He said that the Russian Shahed unlikely deviated from its rout on the territory of Ukraine. The Russians were likely testing Poland's air defense systems and checking NATO's algorithm of actions in the event of such a development.

In his opinion, this step may also be an attempt by Russia to intimidate Poland and NATO so that they do not actively help Ukraine.

Kraszewski is convinced that if such a target appears in Ukraine's airspace, it “must be shot down immediately.” Otherwise, Russia will likely continue these actions.

The expert said that the Polish air defenses should shoot down such targets both over Poland and Ukraine.

“If such an object is shot down over Ukraine, it will not hit a children's hospital, a power plant, a water treatment plant, or a pipeline. This is what Ukrainians need,” Kraszewski said.

He noted that shooting down an air target over Ukraine by means of Poland's air defenses carries the potential risk of injury to individuals on the ground due to the possibility of missile debris falling from the sky. Nevertheless, he believes that the risk is considerably lower than that of a direct hit by a programmed Russian missile or a kamikaze drone on a target in Ukraine, which could potentially result in fatalities.

As Ukrinform reported, during a massive Russian attack on Ukraine on August 26, one Russian drone flew into Poland from the Lviv region. It was on the radar of the Polish air defense system for half an hour. As of today, the search for the drone is underway in Lublin Voivodeship.

Following the Russian air attack, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on partners to allow Ukraine to launch long-range strikes against military targets inside Russia and to agree on the use of Western air defense systems to shoot down missiles and drones.