During a phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders, the parties agreed that security guarantees for Kiev are a key issue in the peace process, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
„All participants in the discussion (which was also joined by the Scandinavian countries, Canada, the Netherlands and NATO) agreed that security guarantees for Ukraine are crucial. They must be concrete and reliable. Such guarantees also mean a safer Poland.
After the meeting of the US and Ukrainian presidents, we will continue the discussion“, Tusk wrote on his Facebook page.
Poland plans to complete the construction of anti-drone fortifications worth 2 billion euros along its eastern border within two years, the country's deputy national defense minister, Cezary Tomczyk, told The Guardian.
“We expect the first capabilities of the system to be available in about six months, possibly even earlier. The completion of the entire system will take 24 months,“ he said.
The new air defense systems will be integrated into the older “line of defense“, established a decade ago. The deputy minister specified that they will include machine guns, missiles and drone suppression systems. Some weapons are intended for use only "in wartime" - for example, multiple machine guns, Tomczyk noted.
In November, Tomczyk announced that Warsaw intended to create its own anti-drone defense system without waiting for the EU's "Drone Wall" initiative. "It should consist of various sensors and effectors working simultaneously, first detecting and identifying objects, and then neutralizing them," he explained. In October, the European Commission presented the concept of a "drone wall" to protect NATO's eastern border from drones amid increasing violations of EU airspace by unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles.
In September, NATO deployed fighter jets to shoot down approximately 20 drones that crossed the Polish border. According to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, this involved "a huge number of Russian drones", some of which were shot down. The Russian Defense Ministry responded that the military had attacked Ukrainian military-industrial facilities and that "there was no intention to target Polish territory".