Poland scrambles fighter jets again as Russia strikes western Ukraine
Polish F-16s and allied aircraft have been scrambled repeatedly this week as Russian jet-powered drones hit western Ukraine near the NATO border. Lublin and Rzeszów airports were briefly closed. Warsaw says Polish airspace was not violated.
Poland has again put fighter aircraft into its own airspace as Russia presses attacks on western Ukraine, close to the NATO frontier. The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces (DORSZ) has used the same formula all week: military aviation begins operating “in connection with strikes by the Russian Federation,” ground-based air defence and radar go to readiness, then the alert is stood down with the line that Polish airspace was not violated.
The pattern has been almost daily since mid-September. On 15 September Polish and allied jets went up overnight against jet-powered drones over Ukraine’s west. On the 16th, residents of Lublin and Podkarpackie received government alerts and Lublin and Rzeszów airports froze civilian traffic while fighters worked. On the 17th, DORSZ scrambled twice in one day. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a “massive attack” had ended very near the border; a petrol station near Yahodyn / Dorohusk was hit again. A spokesman said a jet-powered drone crashed or was shot down about four kilometres inside Ukraine. Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said Operational Command had pre-authorised pilots to shoot down any drone that crossed the line. Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said F-16 and helicopter activity had been increased. Czech Gripens also launched from Pardubice under NATO command and handed the patrol to Polish fighters.
On 18 and 19 September the same sequence ran again. Ukraine’s air force counted large overnight packages — including 174 unmanned systems and two Zircon missiles on one night. Sonic booms over central Poland were attributed to fighters breaking the sound barrier. After each surge, DORSZ reported no breach of Polish airspace and airports reopened.
The flights are preventive, not a declaration that a Russian aircraft has entered Poland. They sit on a tense border week: a drone strike on a passenger train near Yahodyn, attacks on fuel sites within a kilometre of the crossing, and earlier incidents this summer in which debris or a missile reached Polish soil. Warsaw’s message is that the eastern voivodeships are inside the NATO air-defence bubble, and that jets will keep going up whenever Russian munitions run close to that line.
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