Ukrainian forces tracked this missile flying on July 30 all the time, but the pilot attempting to intercept it was forced to abort the mission 20 seconds before the Polish border, Deputy Minister Cezary Tomczyk told the newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza”.
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According to him, this happened because Ukrainian aircraft do not have the legal right to conduct combat operations in NATO airspace. He also added that there was a risk that the fighter jet could have become a target of Polish air defense.
The Deputy Minister further stated that for a foreign military aircraft to conduct so-called “hot pursuit” over Polish territory, political and legal decisions are necessary.
C. Tomczyk noted that Poland is developing a multi-layered air defense system, and NATO’s eastern flank is also protected by the Alliance’s “Eastern Sentry” initiative. According to him, under this program, “if the missile had changed course and posed a threat to people or infrastructure, it would have been shot down within seconds.”
The “Eastern Sentry” program was initiated by NATO in response to the massive Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace in September 2025, reports “TVP World”.
Budrys urges NATO to respond more actively
After the latest airspace violation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for strengthening air defense capabilities in border zones, while Lithuania’s Foreign Minister urged NATO to respond more decisively.
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Previous NATO initiatives, including “Eastern Sentry” and the related “Baltic Sentry” program, had a direct and immediate impact, Kęstutis Budrys told the national broadcaster LRT on Monday.
“When we increased our forces in the region and Russia assessed this as an unfavorable action for itself, it began to behave much more cautiously,” said K. Budrys. “Incidents against Poland stopped, as did cases of infrastructure damage in the Baltic Sea.”
The minister also accused NATO of insufficient political response from the Alliance.
“If we lack the necessary capabilities, we must increase them because we cannot allow the situation where missiles violate our airspace to become the norm,” he said. “The political response of NATO as an organization could have been much stronger.”
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