Russian military helicopter violates Polish airspace to probe air defenses, Poland says

A Russian military helicopter of the Baltic Fleet violated Polish airspace on the evening of April 25, the Polish military command said.

Polish military radar systems and civilian systems of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency tracked the aircraft over Poland's territorial waters in the Baltic Sea.

"The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defense systems," the statement of the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command said on X on April 26.

"On-duty air defense forces and means remained on constant alert to ensure the security of Polish airspace," the command added.

Poland has regularly scrambled jets since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion due to Russian missile and drone attacks on western Ukraine. In several cases, Russian projectiles have briefly entered the Polish airspace.

Warsaw has also repeatedly accused Russian aircraft of airspace violations. On Feb. 11, a Russian SU-24MR military jet flew within Polish airspace in the Gdansk bay area of the Baltic Sea for over a minute, due to what the Russian side said was a failure of the navigation system.

Last year, Polish Brigadier General Tomasz Drewniak told Radio RMF24 that Russia is likely testing Poland's air defenses after a suspected Russian drone flew into Polish airspace on Aug. 26 amid a mass attack on Ukraine.

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The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek