Poland’s Foreign Minister calls on NATO allies to begin shooting down Russian munitions over Ukraine. Ukraine concludes final tests of drones with a 40-kilometer strike range immune to electronic interference. Ukrainian troops clear the village of Pankivka in the Dobropillya direction.
Polish Foreign Minister calls on NATO allies to begin shooting down Russian munitions over Ukraine
Speaking to the German news outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Sunday after the Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace last week, the country’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski said the West should begin shooting down Russian drones and missiles over Ukraine.
“If Ukraine were to ask us to shoot them down over its territory, that would be advantageous for us. If you ask me personally, we should consider it,” he said, as cited by The Washington Post.
“We as NATO and the E.U. could be capable of doing this, but it is not a decision that Poland can make alone; it can only be made with its allies,” he said.
Sikorski also suggested that the allies take a coordinated action against the Russian shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea. Germany or NATO could set up an area in the North Sea in order to control these ageing vessels as they enter into the Baltic Sea, he said. If even one of these Russian ships, two of which have already sunk in the Azov Sea, were to sink in the Baltic Sea, the countries would be faced with an environmental disaster of unprecedented proportions, Sikorski added.
Radosław Sikorski confirmed that while the drones that entered Poland last week were capable of carrying ammunition, they were not loaded with explosives. “Interestingly, they were all duds, which suggests to me that Russia tried to test us without starting a war,” Sikorski told the Guardian in Kyiv. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
He dismissed suggestions that Polish air defences had been unprepared for the incursion, given the fact some of the drones travelled hundreds of miles into Polish territory, and that accounts suggest only three or four out of about 19 were shot down.
“The drones didn’t reach their targets and there was minor damage to property, nobody was hurt. If it happened in Ukraine, by Ukrainian definitions, that would be regarded as a 100% success,” he said.
Sikorski said the Polish response would have been “much tougher” if last week’s attack had caused injuries or deaths in its territory, but declined to elaborate on how such a response could look in a future scenario.
Polish anti-drone teams will receive training from Ukrainian operators to help defend against future attacks, said Sikorski. “The Ukrainians have better equipment for dealing with Russian drones, and they have much deeper and more up-to-date experience of resisting the Russian army,” he said.
Ukraine concludes final tests of drones with 40-kilometer strike range immune to electronic interference
Ukraine’s defense cluster Brave1 conducted final tests of homegrown attack drones with a strike range of 40 kilometers built to withstand electronic interference. The unmanned aerial systems will soon enter the battlefield, Ukraine’s First Vice Prime Minister — Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov said in a post to social media on Monday.
“We completed final tests of loitering munitions with a strike range of more than 40 kilometers. Thanks to support from [Brave1] and feedback from service members, manufacturers were able to develop highly effective technologies that will soon be deployed on the front line,” Fedorov said on X.
After the drones are combat-tested their use on the battlefield will increase exponentially, he added.
Attack drones are becoming a “cheap and practical solution” for the battlefield. They are low-cost to manufacture and their production can be easily scaled up. Such drones are capable of delivering precision strikes at a distance of 40 to 50 and more kilometers, the message reads.
Ukrainian troops clear village of Pankivka in Dobropillya direction
The 1st Azov Corps of Ukraine’s National Guard and other branches of the military have cleared the village of Pankivka and the surrounding area in the Dobropillya direction, in Donetsk region, the unit said on social media on Monday.
“The adversary continues to build up its grouping of forces. The Russian military command has redeployed additional reserves into the area of responsibility for the 1st Azov Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine, including four infantry brigades and a naval infantry regiment while seeking to reinforce its offensive capability,” the message reads.
“Ukraine’s defense forces are making all efforts to stop the enemy’s advance and prevent them from breaking through the defenses,” it added.