Polish fighter jets intercepted and escorted a Russian reconnaissance plane flying over the Baltic Sea near Polish airspace on Christmas Eve. The incident was announced by the Polish army on Thursday, amid a high state of alert on NATO's eastern flank.
Polish jets intercepted a Russian reconnaissance plane PHOTO: Shutterstock
According to the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces, the Russian aircraft was above international waters, but flying close to the borders of Poland's airspace. “This morning, over the international waters of the Baltic Sea, Polish fighter jets intercepted, visually identified and escorted from their area of responsibility a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying near the borders of Polish airspace“, the army said, according to Reuters.
High alert during the holidays
Military authorities pointed out that the activity of the air defense forces was intense, even during the holidays. “Despite the holiday period, last night was a busy one for Poland's air defense services”the command stated in a statement published on the X network, referring to the Christmas Eve incident.
Separately, Polish radar systems detected, during the night, objects that entered Polish airspace from the direction of Belarus. After a detailed analysis, the authorities determined that “these were most likely contraband balloons, moving according to the direction and speed of the wind”. The army stated that all objects were continuously monitored by radar.
As a precautionary measure, part of the airspace over the Podlasie region in north-eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus, has been temporarily closed to civil air traffic, “to ensure safetyThe military also announced that they remained in permanent contact with the other services and that no threat to the security of Polish airspace had been identified.
Tense regional context
Poland, a NATO member that borders both the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Moscow's ally Belarus, has repeatedly raised fighter jets in recent years in response to Russian military activity near its airspace. Countries on the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance have been on high alert since September after three Russian warplanes violated Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, just days after more than 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace.
The balloon incidents are also part of a wider regional problem. Neighboring Lithuania this month arrested 21 people accused of smuggling cigarettes using weather balloons launched from Belarus. Lithuanian authorities have warned that such balloons, which can be tracked by GPS and drift with the wind, pose a risk to civil aviation and can disrupt flights, but are difficult to intercept with fighter jets designed to counter high-speed military aircraft.
