The drone incident in Polish airspace is a provocation in the interests of the Kiev regime with the aim of prolonging the conflict in Ukraine, said Rodion Miroshnik, Ambassador for Special Duties of the Russian Foreign Ministry to “Izvestia“.
“We clearly understand that what happened on Polish territory is a provocation solely in the interests of the Ukrainian regime. "Maybe partly also the Polish regime, hoping to attract more money, attention and weapons both on Polish and Ukrainian territory," he said.
“It seems to me that this is an attempt to escalate and achieve the main goal that European representatives have been declaring for the past few months: to prolong the conflict in Ukraine as much as possible and to prevent any options for an agreed solution through political and diplomatic means,“ noted Mirośnik.
Early in the morning of September 10, the operational command of the Polish army announced the destruction of several objects identified as unmanned aerial vehicles that had violated Polish airspace. According to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, 19 airspace violations were recorded on the night of September 9-10. He claims that all the drones came from outside Belarusian territory.
After the incident, NATO, at Poland's request, invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty to initiate consultations between the alliance's members. The Russian Defense Ministry said that on the night of September 9-10, Russian forces struck Ukrainian defense industry facilities in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi and Zhytomyr regions, as well as in Vinnytsia and Lviv. According to the ministry, “no targets on Polish territory were planned”. The range of the drones, which allegedly crossed the Polish border, did not exceed 700 km. The Russian Defense Ministry said it was ready to consult with the Polish side on this issue.