Poland says not going to down Russian missiles, drones over Ukraine

This was stated by Polish Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Zalewski after an informal meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels, Ukrinform reports with reference to Radio Poland.

The Polish government official noted that EU and NATO allies "are not parties to this war." Instead, Poland advocates a significant strengthening of Ukraine's defense capabilities.

"Ukraine must have something to defend itself, defend its territory, its airspace with. But we do not consider in any format, especially bilateral, which is actually one of Ukraine's expectations, that is, the possibility of shooting down Russian missiles or drones from the territory of Poland," said Zalewski.

He noted that Poland's position is that the significant strengthening of Ukraine's air defense "should be sufficient and not require such support from the Polish aviation."

Zalewski also noted that Poland does not support the proposal to train the Ukrainian military on the territory of Ukraine. As noted by Rmf24, the idea sees support from France and a number of Northern European nations, while Germany, Austria, and Poland oppose this. According to the Polish government official, the training of the Ukrainian military on the territory of the EU, in particular in Poland, is "the most effective" option. He noted that on a bilateral basis, individual EU nations can train Ukrainian military personnel on the territory of Ukraine, but Poland will not be among them.

At the same time, Warsaw supports the idea to lift any restrictions on the use of long-range weapons so that Ukraine could hit military targets inside Russia.

As reported, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, in an interview with Politico ahead of the informal meeting of the heads of foreign affairs of the EU countries, said Ukraine wanted Poland to shoot down missiles or drones flying in its direction, and needed the support of its partners in this matter.

Earlier, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Donald Tusk, stated that the Allies recommend that Poland refrain from shooting down air targets on its territory.

According to the Operational Command of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland, during Russia’s massive strike on Ukraine on August 26, a Russian drone flew into Poland from the direction of Chervonohrad, Lviv region. Today, the search for the missing drone continued in the Lublin Voivodeship.

Tusk later said it could be the case that no Russian drone had violated Polish airspace in the first place.

Photo: PAP/EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET