Poland is considering whether to shoot down any Russian missiles that go close to its borders, the country's deputy foreign minister has said.
Warsaw has demanded an answer from Moscow about how a Russian missile, which was traveling around 500 miles an hour per hour at 1,200 feet altitude, came into Poland's airspace for 39 seconds at 4.30 a.m. Sunday near the town of Oserdow.
Polish Armed Forces Operational Command (RSZ) said its air defenses had been activated and that the missile would have been shot down had there been any sign it was heading towards a target in Poland.
Andrzej Szejna told Polish radio station RMF FM the incident was a test of the strength of the defense and vigilance of the Polish Armed Forces.
"NATO is analyzing different concepts, including that such missiles should be shot down when they are very close to the NATO border," he said, "but this should happen with the consent of the Ukrainian side and taking into account international consequences."
"In this case, NATO missiles would hit Russian missiles outside the territory of the Alliance Treaty," he added, according to a translation. "We take Putin's threats very seriously."
Newsweek reached out to NATO for comment.
NATO's provision of weapons and training to Ukraine's forces has been calibrated to avoid an escalation that would see a direct confrontation with the alliance, even as the Kremlin and its propagandists frame the conflict as a proxy war with the West.
But with Russia and Ukraine recently engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, concerns remain over whether the war started by Vladimir Putin might spill over into the rest of Europe.
As a member of NATO since 2004, a missile breach of Polish territory could test Article 5 of the alliance's charter stipulating that an attack on one is an attack on all.
Poland's proximity to Ukraine and Russia has made its airspace vulnerable to being caught in the conflict's crossfire. In December, a Russian missile breached Polish airspace for several minutes before returning to Ukraine.
In November 2022, a Ukrainian air-defense missile fell in the Polish village of Przewodow, near the Ukrainian border, killing two people.
Sharing Szejna's remarks, Ukrainian Internal Affairs Advisor Anton Gerashchenko posted on X, formerly Twitter, "I've said before that Russia will use different ways to poke NATO and look at its reaction. Russia might not want to attack NATO directly, it will be happy if NATO just breaks down. Is NATO becoming aware of the threat?"
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
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