Russian Attack on Poland

Poland shot down several drones over its territory on the night of September 10, when Russia launched a massive drone attack on western Ukraine. The Polish military called the incident "an act of aggression," and Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an urgent government meeting.

Warsaw airport and several other Polish cities were closed for several hours, the first such case in Europe since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

According to the General Command of the Polish Armed Forces, drones repeatedly violated the country's airspace during the Russian strike on western Ukraine, the BBC reports.

Radars detected more than ten objects, and those that could pose a threat were "neutralized," the military said, calling the violation of Polish airspace "unprecedented in scale."

"Some of the drones that entered our airspace have been shot down. Searches and work to locate their possible crash sites are ongoing," the Armed Forces statement said.

The operation was completed around 7:30 a.m. local time, but the search for the shot-down drones continues.

Authorities in the border Lublin Voivodeship reported that police found at least one drone shot down by the Polish military.

Additionally, in the town of Wyrki in the Lublin Voivodeship, drone debris damaged the roof of a residential building and a car parked on the property, according to the publication Polsat News, citing a deputy inspector in the Lublin police department.

The Polish government announced that Prime Minister Donald Tusk had convened an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers for 8:00 a.m. local time.

Several hours after the attack, Tusk stated that the drones shot down over Poland were Russian. He said that during the night, "the airspace of Poland was violated by a large number of Russian drones," and that he was in "constant contact" with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and allies.

Before then, the Polish military and officials had not directly identified the drones that violated Polish airspace as Russian.

Polish territorial defense soldiers were asked to be ready for a possible call-up on shorter notice than standard procedure.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has not yet commented on the incident.

Chopin Airport in Warsaw, the largest in the country, announced an indefinite closure overnight. According to Flightradar24 data, several flights scheduled to arrive in Warsaw early in the morning were rerouted to airports in Katowice, Wroclaw, and Poznan.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had earlier reported that four Polish airports were temporarily closed, including Rzeszów–Jasionka in the southeast, a key hub for passenger and military supplies to Ukraine.

Warsaw airport reopened only after several hours. The airport administration warned that the air traffic disruption could affect flight operations throughout the day.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, an air raid alert was declared overnight over almost the entire country, including the western Volyn and Lviv regions, which border Poland.