Alliance defense: Poland and Romania on alert for drones

In Poland because of the risk of a Russian drone attack on neighboring regions of Ukraine, fighting jets rose up. As the leadership command of the Polish army announced in Warsaw, the ground -based air defense systems were also made available in the afternoon. Such measures are not unusual, but because of the incident with presumably Russian drones in Polish territory last week, they currently get special attention. In Romania, too, the arms viewed a drone near the border to Ukraine and initiated educational measures.

The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced at X: “Due to the threat of Russian drones that operate above Ukraine near the Polish border, preventive surgery of the air forces began, both the Polish and ally.” According to the PAP agency, the airport in Lublin was temporarily closed for civil aviation due to military activity. After about two hours, the Polish army announced that the operation of the air forces and the increased willingness to alert had ended.

Warning of “attack from the air”

According to the agency Pap, the mayors of Swidnik and Chelm in the east of the country previously announced on social media that warning sirens were used due to the threat. They therefore asked the population to keep calm. A government crisis center also sent all the cell phones in five districts in the border area with Ukraine SMS, which warned of the “risk of an attack from the air”.

During a Russian air raid on Ukraine on Wednesday night, a large number of drones into the airspace of Poland and thus NATO had flown. The Polish Air Force and other NATO allies shot some Russian drones for the first time. Since then, Poland has received increased support from NATO allies. For this purpose, the “Eastern Sentry” operation – such as: Guardian of the East – was initiated. Poland has been rising fighter jets for every major attack on the west of Ukraine. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian attack war since February 2022.

Romanian disaster protection alarmed population

Romania’s army also saw a drone on Saturday in the Tulcea region of Tulcea on the Danube Delta near the Ukrainian border. Two F-16 fight jets from the Fetesti Air Force Base rose to an observation mission. According to the dpa, NATO also alerted two German Eurofighter in Romania, who are supposed to protect the airspace there. The alarm start reacted to Russian attacks in the border area of ​​Ukraine in Romania.

The drone had not flown on Romanian territory and presented no danger, reported the Ministry of Defense in Bucharest. The region is sparsely populated. Nevertheless, disaster protection had warned the population from the air against the danger of possibly falling “objects”.

The Romanian fighter jets had followed the drone about 20 kilometers to the Romanian Danube town of Chilia Veche, after which the object had disappeared from the radar. Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in the Danube Delta, ruins of Russian drows on Romanian territory had fallen several times, mostly after Russian attacks on the ports on the Ukrainian Danube bank. Every time Romania’s authorities and NATO had stated that it was about Russia unintentional incidents.