EU summons Russian and Belarusian diplomats over drone incident in Poland

The European Union has summoned the acting chargés d’affaires of Russia and Belarus, Agence France-Presse reported, citing an EU official.

According to the official, the summons was linked to the incident involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Poland.

“We have sent a signal that we will continue to support Ukraine,” she said.

In the early hours of September 10, Poland’s Operational Command announced that its forces had destroyed several aerial objects identified as drones that violated the country’s airspace.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk later stated that 19 violations had been recorded overnight, adding that all the UAVs had originated from Belarusian territory.

Following the incident, NATO, at Poland’s request, invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides for consultations among alliance members.

The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed that on the night of September 9–10, Russian forces had targeted facilities of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex in the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, and Lviv.

It emphasised that “no targets on Polish territory were planned.” The ministry also noted that the range of the drones alleged to have entered Polish airspace does not exceed 700 kilometres. Moscow added that it was ready to hold consultations with Warsaw “on this issue.”

By Tamilla Hasanova