Poland said on Wednesday it had scrambled aircraft alongside allies to shoot down “hostile objects” violating its airspace during a Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine, a first for a NATO country during the war.

“Aircraft have used weapons against hostile objects,” Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on social media, adding: “We are in constant contact with NATO command.”

The incursion came as Russia unleashed a barrage of strikes across Ukraine, including in the western city of Lviv, around 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the Polish border.

Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members — including Poland — several times during Russia’s three-and-a-half-year war, but a NATO country has never attempted to shoot them down.

A cornerstone of the Western military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.

The operational command of Poland’s military slammed the “unprecedented” airspace violations, saying it had spotted around a dozen drone-type objects and downed some of them.

“This is an act of aggression that has created a real threat to the safety of our citizens,” it said.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that weapons had been used against the invading objects, saying on social media that an “operation related to multiple violations of Polish airspace is underway”.

The Polish government announced it will hold an “extraordinary” cabinet meeting at 8am (11am PKT).

‘Provocation’

The operation came as authorities closed the airspace over part of the country, according to a statement from Warsaw’s main Chopin Airport, where flights were halted.

It comes a day after Poland’s newly elected nationalist President Karol Nawrocki warned that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was ready to invade more countries after launching his war in Ukraine.

“We do not trust Vladimir Putin’s good intentions,” Nawrocki told reporters Tuesday at a press conference in Helsinki.

“We believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to also invade other countries.”

NATO-member Poland, a major supporter of Ukraine, hosts over a million Ukrainian refugees and is a key transit point for Western humanitarian and military aid to the war-torn country.

Last month, Warsaw said a Russian military drone flew into its airspace and exploded in farmland in eastern Poland, calling the incident a “provocation”.

Poland in 2023 said a Russian missile had crossed into its airspace to strike Ukraine.

And in November 2022, two civilians were killed when a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile fell on a village near the border.

Russian foreign ministry dismisses Polish allegations as ‘myths’

Russia’s foreign ministry said today that the facts previously presented by the defence ministry effectively debunk what it described as “myths” about Russian drones deliberately crossing into Polish territory.

The ministry claimed that its drones had carried out a major attack on military facilities in western Ukraine but stressed that there were no plans to hit any targets in Poland.

Both the defence and foreign ministers also expressed readiness to hold consultations with their Polish counterparts to address the issue.

Poland invokes NATO Article 4 for urgent talks after drone incursion

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday that the NATO member had invoked the Western defence alliance’s Article 4 for urgent talks after Russian drones violated its airspace.

Tusk told parliament that Poland had identified 19 violations of its airspace overnight and shot down at least three drones, adding that no one was harmed in the “Russian action”.

“The allied consultations I am referring to have now taken the form of a formal request to invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty,” he added.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO’s main political decision-making body, met on Wednesday morning for its regular weekly meeting.

However, according to diplomats, the allies decided that the meeting would be held under Article 4 of the alliance treaty.

Under Article 4, any member can call urgent talks when it feels its “territorial integrity, political independence or security” are at risk.

The Polish case marked the eighth time the article has been invoked since the alliance was founded in 1949.

Wednesday’s talks are the third time Article 4 has been invoked to address Russia’s incursions into and invasion of Ukraine.

NATO’s collective security is based on its Article 5 principle: if one member is attacked, the entire alliance comes to its defence.

That article has only been invoked once in the history of NATO, following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.