Russia trying to probe Polish defense, general says after airspace violation

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) — After a recent incident where a Russian object violated Poland's airspace, a Polish general said on Tuesday that Moscow was trying to measure the country's defense response to such transgressions.

"By releasing the device onto our territory, the Russians are checking how our system works, how long it takes to raise the alert forces into the air," Polish General Tomasz Drewniak told Radio RMF24, a day after the object flew into Polish airspace on Monday.

Drewniak added that the object was likely an Iranian Shahed drone, often used by the Russian forces in the country's war with Ukraine. "Incidents like yesterday's give the Russians a lot of valuable information, which is then useful for planning any operation," he added.

Polish authorities are hunting for the remains of the aircraft in the Tyszowce commune of the southeastern Lublin region.

Drewniak admitted that while it may have returned across the border to Ukraine, the object "would have to be specially programmed by the Russians" to do so.

"They would like to achieve a double — attack Ukraine, and secondly, wake up our entire system and see what we are doing," he said, adding: "They are able to see how the chain of command spreads, how it all looks in time."

Earlier, 15 Ukrainian regions came under massive Russian drone and missile attacks on Monday morning.

The Polish Armed Forces said on Monday that an object entered the country's airspaces from with northwestern Ukraine amid intensive Russian air attacks on several cities. The military's operational commander said the aircraft was confirmed by at least three radar stations but added that it could not be traced after about 25 kilometers of flight.

Russia has yet to comment on the incident. Several Russian missiles have landed in Poland since Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022.