NATO is considering the possibility of shooting down Russian missiles that come too close to the Atlantic alliance's borders, Poland's deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday, two days after Poland declared a violation of its airspace.
• Read more: Russian Missile Over Poland: Russian Ambassador Ignores Official Summons
• Read more: Russian missile violates Polish airspace
• Read more: In pictures | Massive explosions in Crimea
Warsaw said on Sunday that a Russian cruise missile fired overnight at cities in western Ukraine penetrated Polish airspace for 39 seconds.
Poland's defense minister assured that Poland had activated all its anti-aircraft systems and that the missile would have been shot down if there had been the slightest indication of a target on Polish territory.
On Tuesday, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna told local radio RMF24 that “various points of view are being analyzed within NATO” from the incident, “including the shooting down of these missiles when they were very close to NATO's borders.” member.
AFP
“But this can be done only with the agreement of the Ukrainian side and taking into account the international consequences,” said Mr. Sejna said.
Warsaw expressed regret on Monday that the Russian ambassador to Poland ignored an official summons sent to the Polish Foreign Ministry following the missile incident.
Poland later indicated that Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski had discussed it with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
During the telephone interview, Mr. Stoltenberg recalled that “NATO has significantly increased its awareness and strengthened its positions in the eastern part of the alliance, especially in Poland,” a senior NATO official said on Tuesday.
Poland had already reported at the end of December that a Russian missile had entered its airspace from the direction of Ukraine before leaving moments later.
A year earlier, in December 2022, another Russian KH-55 cruise missile, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, crashed in Poland, but its remains were found in April 2023 in a forest near Bydgoszcz to the north by about 500 people. Km from the eastern border of the country.
In November 2022, a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile landed in the Polish village of Przemyśl near the Ukrainian border, killing two people.
