On Monday, near the Jarosławiec resort in northwestern Poland, a drone carrying a powerful explosive fragmentation warhead with a detonator was found, officials clarified.
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“The warhead was successfully separated from the drone and, to ensure safety, was immediately neutralized on the beach,” reports the state news agency PAP, citing a spokesperson for the Polish prosecutor’s office.
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He also added that preliminary data shows the drone was a Russian-made “Gerbera-2” model.
Country’s military police representative Dariusz Rozkosz said the military neutralized drone components that “could have posed a threat to human life or health.”
“The drone was retrieved and handed over for further laboratory tests,” he said, adding that no chemical, radiological, or biological hazards that the drone could pose were found.
It may have previously flown over Lithuania
According to Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, this drone could be the same one that flew over Lithuania on Sunday and which authorities searched for and tried to neutralize.
The drone “later crossed the Lithuanian border into Russia’s Kaliningrad region and most likely flew over the Baltic Sea,” added W. Kosiniak-Kamysz.
State of heightened alert
In recent weeks, Europe has been in a state of heightened alert due to a series of suspected hybrid operations and drone incursions, amid growing concerns that Russia’s war in Ukraine could spill over into NATO’s eastern flank.
On Tuesday, a NATO fighter jet shot down a drone entering Lithuanian airspace from Belarus for the first time.
At the beginning of the month, Germany accused Russia of an attempted drone attack at Leipzig-Halle airport in August.
In recent weeks, Russian drones have also struck border control points in Ukraine’s neighboring countries, including Romania and Moldova.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned over the weekend that Poland must prepare for the possible use of Moscow’s jet drones after Russia struck targets near the country’s border with Ukraine.
