Poland Calls For No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, following the large-scale entry of Russian drones in Poland, called for “thinking about introducing a no-fly zone over Ukraine.”

The politician said this in an interview with FAZ.

According to the minister, it is still unknown what exactly the Russian drones were targeting in Poland. However, he “does not believe it was an accident that 19 drones suddenly ‘mistakenly’ ended up in our country.”

“First of all, we should take it as a signal to accelerate our defense preparations. Since Donald Trump’s first term in office, we Europeans have doubled our defense spending. In The Hague, we agreed to double it again. But you can’t protect yourself from drones with just a percentage of GDP – you have to spend the money properly,” he said when asked what message Poland, NATO and the EU should send to Russia in light of the incident.

He also emphasized that Ukraine is far ahead of its partner countries in anti-drone defense and stressed the need to adopt this experience and create joint ventures for the production of drones.

“They are creating decentralized factories, producing attack drones, interceptor drones and missiles, and they say that the best way to help is to jointly produce, that is, in Ukraine and also in our countries, for Ukraine and for ourselves. I think it would be extremely beneficial for both sides,” he said.

According to Sikorsky, the idea of a no-fly zone was discussed back in 2024, when Joe Biden was president of the United States.

“Technically, both NATO and the EU are capable of doing this, but Poland cannot make this decision on its own – only together with its allies. The protection for our population – for example, from falling debris – would certainly be better if we could destroy drones and other aerial objects outside our territory. If Ukraine asked us to shoot them down over its territory, it would be beneficial for us as well. If you ask me personally, we should think about it,” he explained.

The politician also focused on strengthening sanctions, in particular against the shadow fleet of oil tankers transporting Russian oil.

“We wasted the first two years of Russian aggression on a lot of talk and little action. Now that Putin is testing our borders, there is no time for delay,” he concluded.

On the night of September 10, Russian drones intruded into Polish airspace en masse. As a result, Polish and Dutch aircraft, which were on duty there as part of NATO Air Policing, shot down some of the drones for the first time.

After the attack, Poland restricted air traffic along the border with Ukraine and Belarus for three months and requested additional air defense systems from NATO allies.