Warsaw has a “constitutional duty” to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine that are on course to hit Polish territory, Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski told the Financial Times in an interview published Monday. The Polish top diplomat’s remarks come a week after the NATO country’s airspace was breached by what the army said was likely a drone after Russia pummelled neighboring Ukraine with deadly strikes. Despite a week-long ground search, the suspected drone has not been found. During a new wave of Russian aerial attacks on Monday, Poland scrambled its fighter jets to the Ukrainian border to protect its airspace.
“I’m personally of the view that, when hostile missiles are on course of entering our airspace, it would be legitimate self-defence (to strike them) because once they do cross into our airspace, the risk of debris injuring someone is significant,” Sikorski added. Following Sikorski’s comments, a NATO official said that the alliance “has a responsibility to prevent Russia’s war from escalating further,” adding that “NATO is not a party to the conflict and NATO will not become a party to the conflict.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week urged European nations to help down drones and missiles over Ukraine. In March, Poland reported a breach of its airspace by a Russian cruise missile, demanding an explanation from Moscow. A similar incident occurred in December 2023 when a Russian missile penetrated Polish airspace for several minutes before returning to Ukraine. In November 2022, two people were killed when a Ukrainian air defense missile fell on the Polish village of Przewodow, close to the Ukrainian border. Before the missile was identified as Ukrainian, fears were raised that NATO would be dragged into an escalation of the conflict with Russia if its collective defense provisions were triggered.
