Russian Mi-8 helicopter violates Polish airspace near Kaliningrad, Poland says

A Russian Mi-8 military helicopter briefly violated Polish airspace near the country's northern border on Sept. 23, Poland's Armed Forces Operational Command said.

The helicopter crossed into Polish airspace north of Braniewo at around 11:08 a.m. local time after flying from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, the command said.

The helicopter entered Polish airspace to a maximum depth of around 300 meters and remained there for 42 seconds, according to the statement.

The aircraft was tracked by Polish military radar systems, while fighter jets were scrambled and ground forces were placed on standby. Polish air defense crews remain on round-the-clock watch and at "constant readiness" to protect the country's airspace, according to the statement.

"The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is once again testing the readiness of our air defense," the command said.

The day prior, on Sept. 22, Poland placed six border crossings with Ukraine in the Lubelskie and Podkarpackie regions on heightened readiness, with Polish military personnel deployed at the crossings, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said, as reported by Ukrinform.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Sept. 13 that Russian escalation could increase in the upcoming months.

"The escalation of actions of the Russian Federation is becoming a fact, and its examples are getting closer and closer to our borders," Tusk said in a briefing with defense officials. "What can be expected is that the next weeks and months will be a period of very intensive actions from the Russian side. Unfortunately, we cannot rule out that this escalation will also concern our territory."

Tusk's statement came a day after Russia launched drones overnight at western Ukraine on Sept. 12, striking a gas station near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing and a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train just 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Polish border.

Poland's deputy permanent representative to the U.N., Michal Miarka, said on Aug. 24 that Russian aggression in Ukraine poses a serious threat to neighboring states, as evident in recent airspace violations of the Polish, Romanian, and Latvian airspace.

The diplomat pointed to a Russian cruise missile crashing in Poland's Lublin province after traveling about 90 kilometers (55 miles) into Polish territory during a mass strike against Ukraine on July 30.

Countries in Ukraine's neighborhood have increasingly felt the impact of the war as Russian drones and missiles have repeatedly entered Romanian, Moldovan, and Polish territory.