Poland is considering a Ukrainian proposal to intercept Russian rockets that are on course to hit cities in Ukraine or enter Polish territory, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said following a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Friday.
“We are a frontline state and Russian missiles breach our airspace – we assume by mistake,” Sikorski said.
Sikorski explained that some missiles fired from around St. Petersburg fly along the Polish border through Belarusian airspace, before briefly entering Polish airspace for about 40 seconds before hitting targets inside Ukraine.
“Our dilemma is the following: if we shoot them down only when they enter our airspace, the debris is a threat to our citizens and to our property,” he said.
“And the Ukrainians are saying, ‘Please, we will not mind, do it over our airspace when they’re in imminent danger of crossing into Polish territory,’” he said, “To my mind, that’s self-defense but we are exploring the idea.”
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Warsaw to sign a security cooperation agreement between the two countries.
Sikorski said the idea of Poland downing Russian missiles was discussed in that agreement.
“At this stage, this is an idea. What our agreement said is we will explore this idea,” he said.
On Wednesday, Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polish national radio service Polskie Radio 24 that such a decision would only be made with NATO allies.
“If NATO does not make such a decision, Poland will not make it individually,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
However, speaking in an interview with Ukrainian national TV later on Sunday, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg appeared to pour cold water on the idea, saying the bloc would not become part of the conflict. Asked to comment on the Polish idea, he said that NATO would not get “involved directly.”
