During a night attack on Ukrainian infrastructure on March 24, a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace.

This was reported by the Operational Command of the Armed Forces of Poland.

It is reported that the missile violated Polish airspace at 4:23 AM, remained within it for 39 seconds, and then exited. The missile was monitored by military radars throughout its flight.

The spokesman for the Operational Command, Lieutenant Colonel Jacek Goryszewski, stated that the missile traveled at a speed of nearly 800 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 400 meters. It penetrated approximately 2 kilometers into the country’s airspace before exiting.

Goryszewski added that the military wouldn’t check the territory over which the missile flew, as the Polish military was sure that the missile left the country’s airspace.

After that, all the necessary procedures were launched to protect the airspace of Poland, and the air force of the country and its allies were activated.

Polish authorities have reported that the air defense would have intercepted the missile if there were indications that it was targeting any location on Polish territory.

The Minister of Defense of Poland stated that due to the threat that arose in the territory of Ukraine, all air defense systems and all Air Force systems were put into operation in Poland.

He added that the systems tracked about a dozen missiles heading towards the Lviv region, and the Polish side exchanged information with the Ukrainians.

“If there were any signs that this object was heading for some target located on the territory of the republic, of course, it would be shot down,” Kosinyak-Kamysh said.

Russian missiles in Polish airspace

On December 29, 2023, Militarnyi reported that during a massive Russian missile strike on Ukrainian territory, the Polish airspace was violated by a Russian cruise missile.

The Polish media outlet Wiadomosci reported that the rocket was spotted in the vicinity of the village of Vozhuchin-Kukronya, Grubeshevsky district, Lublin Voivodeship.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, General Wieslaw Kukula, said that everything indicated that the object that flew into Polish territory was a Russian missile.

The missile flew about 40 kilometers in Polish airspace but turned back. Polish forces were ready to bring it down, but it was not necessary in the end.

Recall that on April 24, 2023, in a forest near Polish Bydgoszcz, a bystander came across the remains of an unknown object that turned out to be a Kh-55 cruise missile.

The findings of the Institute of Technology indicated that the Kh-55 cruise missile most likely flew to the place from the eastern border of Poland.

This object was tracked, but in the Bydgoszcz area, they lost sight of it. This happened about two kilometers from where the rocket was found by a passerby.

The attitude of Polish society to the interception of Russian missiles

In February 2024, Militarnyi reported that, according to the opinion poll, nearly two-thirds of Polish citizens believed that their country should shoot down Russian missiles flying over Ukraine.

Poles believed that Warsaw should initiate negotiations with NATO and Ukraine to expand air defense to the border of Ukrainian territory.

Some Polish experts and former officers of the Polish army spoke about the creation of a common air defense zone when, at the end of December, a Russian missile crossed the border, flew over the territory of Poland, and returned to Ukraine.

69.3% of polled Poles favored the beginning of the relevant negotiations, 17.6% were against it, and 13.1% weren’t sure, the survey showed.

The Polish Ministry of Defense called the inclusion of part of Ukraine in the NATO air defense system “an extremely difficult issue.”