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Poland’s foreign minister called for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine on Monday to protect Europe from Russian drone strikes after Moscow’s UAVs entered Warsaw’s airspace last week.
Radoslaw Sikorski slammed last Wednesday’s incursion as proof of the danger Russia poses to Europe, calling for NATO to unite and place a no-fly zone over Ukraine, a move previously rejected by the Biden administration despite Kyiv’s plea, German news outlet Frankfurter Allgemeiner reported.
“We as NATO and the EU could be capable of doing this, but it is not a decision that Poland can make alone,” Sikorski said. “It can only be made with its allies.
“Protection for our population — for example, from falling debris — would naturally be greater if we could combat drones and other flying objects beyond our national territory,” he added.
“If Ukraine were to ask us to shoot them down over its territory, that would be advantageous for us. If you ask me personally, we should consider it,” the Polish foreign minister said.
The idea of establishing a no-fly zone over Kyiv’s airspace was originally pitched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Zelensky warned allies that Ukraine lacked the defenses to repel Moscow’s extensive bombardment, a prediction that has been proven true in more than three years of war, with Russia’s drone campaign growing every month.
“To establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine is to save people,” Zelensky told Congress in March 2022.
Then-President Joe Biden, however, refused to send out US planes and pilots needed to maintain such an order, with European leaders following suit out of concerns that it could spark all-out war with Russia.
Such a move is unlikely to get much traction, given that Trump has reiterated that no US forces would be sent to Ukraine.
Poland’s push for NATO to become more active in the war came after 19 Russian projectiles were recorded entering Warsaw’s airspace last Wednesday, in what officials and experts surmised was a deliberate action to test the Western defense bloc.
While a majority of the drones were shot down or crashed near the border with Ukraine, at least two drones were recovered more than 100 miles from the eastern border.
One of the drones also landed on a Polish retiree’s roof as he and his wife were watching live news reports of the incursion when the UAV slammed into their house.
Days later, Romania was forced to scramble its own fighter jets after a Russian drone breached its airspace following an attack on Ukraine.
Moscow denied that it had deliberately fired the drones at Poland, describing the incident as an accident and accusing NATO of overreacting.
English (US)