The Polish army announced that it did not find parts of any projectile, after the detection of an object that entered from the border with Ukraine was reported on Friday, flew over Polish airspace for three minutes and left the radars.
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This occurred hours after Ukrainian authorities reported a massive Russian attack against several cities on Friday, leading to speculation that it was a Russian-made rocket that had deviated from its trajectory.
The detection was also validated by Ukrainian radar systems, as indicated by a spokesperson for the Polish operational command on Saturday.
However, a ground search, carried out near the city of Zamosc, southeast of Poland, by some 500 soldiers of the Territorial Defense Force, did not allow finding any parts of the alleged Russian rocket, so the operation was canceled. .
This was indicated by the operational command of the Polish army through a statement posted on the social network on field”.
The alleged violation of Polish airspace led that country's Foreign Minister to summon the Russian chargé d'affaires, Andrei Ordash, to consultations to demand an explanation.
Ordash described the accusations as “insubstantial” and assured that his country would not offer any type of explanation until “concrete evidence” of the alleged violation of Polish airspace was presented.
NATO mobilized
The incident also provoked reactions within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), whose Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg indicated that the alliance remained “vigilant” and showed its solidarity with Poland in a call to President Andrzej Duda.
The United States also offered technical assistance to investigate the alleged violation of Polish airspace, through White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who communicated with his Polish counterpart Jacek Siewiera.
Sullivan let Polish authorities know that President Joe Biden, who is vacationing in the Virgin Islands, was closely monitoring the situation.
Recent background
It is not the first time that incidents have occurred in which third countries are affected by the fire of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In April of this year, the remains of a Russian-made air-to-ground rocket were found in a forest near the city of Bydgoszcz, northern Poland, and six kilometers from the border with Ukraine. The projectile caused the death of two Polish farmers.
In February, Russian Kalibr missiles violated the airspace of Moldova and Romania, the latter member of NATO, while advancing towards Ukraine, according to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny.
However, there have also been more confusing episodes, such as the discovery in November 2022 of a missile in the Polish city of Przewodów, bordering Ukraine, which was initially reported as Russian, although the spokesperson for that country's Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov later assured that it was an S-300, belonging to the Ukrainian Air Force.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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