As of: February 8, 2024, 6:49 p.m
By: Babett Gumbrecht
Comments
Press
Split
A Russian air missile headed for Poland.
It is not the first time that Ukraine's neighbor has come into focus.
Warsaw - Poland has sent fighter jets towards the Polish border and put the country's air force on alert.
The trigger was a missile that Russia fired at Ukraine as part of a barrage on Wednesday morning (February 7th) - and which apparently headed for the Polish border in between.
Ultimately, however, it changed direction and hit Ukrainian soil, as the news portal
Newsweek
reported.
Poland's military warns population about noise: jets on standby
The Polish Armed Forces said via intelligence service
Ukraine's NATO ally then initiated "all necessary procedures to ensure the security of Polish airspace," wrote
Newsweek
.
The Polish armed forces warned of increased noise pollution from aircraft taking off.
The southeastern part of the country is particularly affected.
The missile, which was allegedly headed for Poland, was probably part of the Russian missile attack on several regions of Ukraine on Wednesday morning.
Ukrainian authorities reported explosions in the capital Kiev, the Kharkiv region, the city of Drohobych in Lviv, western Ukraine, and the southern city of Mykolaiv.
About 20 Russian missiles were shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces near Kiev, according to the head of the military administration of the capital Kiev, Serhiy Popko, writes
Newsweek
.
Concern about Russia's missiles: Poland sent fighter jets at the beginning of 2024
Poland sent fighter jets to the border region at the beginning of the year.
At that time, the Russian military launched one of the most massive air strikes on Ukraine.
At that time, Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital Kiev, its surroundings and the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine with dozens of missiles and drones.
At least one of these rockets was briefly in Polish airspace.
According to information from Kiev, Russia fired 99 “missiles of various types,” of which 72 were shot down.
According to Ukrainian authorities, at least four people were killed.
250,000 people in the capital region were without electricity, the
dpa
reported at the time .
In November 2022, two people were killed when a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile crashed over the Polish village of Przewodow near the Ukrainian border.
The incident occurred while Russia was bombing several cities across Ukraine.
At that time there were initially fears that it was a Russian missile and that NATO could be drawn directly into the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Worries about Russia - It's not just Poland that is preparing: NATO is also starting major maneuvers
Especially since these incidents, the EU and NATO country Poland has been closely monitoring the air strikes against its neighbor Ukraine.
“We would like to inform you that intensive long-range aviation activities of the Russian Federation are being observed, which are associated with carrying out attacks on Ukrainian territory,” the Polish operational command wrote on Platform X in January after Russia launched attacks on Kiev and Kharkiv .
Poland also received confirmation from NATO radars that missiles from the Kremlin were in Polish airspace.
NATO is also preparing for a possible confrontation with Russia.
Since the beginning of February, “Steadfast Defender,” the largest NATO maneuver in decades, has been underway.
According to NATO information, the military exercise with around 90,000 soldiers is intended to test the possibility of a Russian attack on alliance territory in the event of an emergency.
The major maneuver will therefore last until the end of May.
All 31 alliance countries and candidate country Sweden are taking part in the four-month military exercise.
(
bg/dpa
)