Poland's foreign minister has sparked fresh controversy and intense discussion within the NATO military alliance by saying that member states have a 'duty' to shoot down incoming Russian missiles when they are in Ukraine's skies threatening the population below.
"Membership in Nato does not trump each country’s responsibility for the protection of its own airspace – it’s our own constitutional duty," Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told the Financial Times. The comments appeared to shirk off the possibility that such action risks major escalation with Russia.
"I’m personally of the view that, when hostile missiles are on course of entering our airspace, it would be legitimate self-defense [to strike them] because once they do cross into our airspace, the risk of debris injuring someone is significant," the Polish top diplomat said.
This isn't the first time the issue has arisen, but Russia's recent ballistic missile and drone attacks across all oblasts of Ukraine, including in the West near Lviv, have significantly stepped up, leading to more border incidents and close-calls directly impacting neighboring Poland. A large barrage just hit Monday as well. FT details:
Poland signed a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine earlier this summer in which the two countries undertook to examine "the feasibility of possible intercepting in Ukraine’s airspace missiles and UAVs fired in the direction of territory of Poland, following necessary procedures agreed by the states and organizations involved".
...Sikorski insisted on his country’s right to intercept after a suspected Russian drone crossed into Poland on August 26. Polish authorities have since been searching for the UAV, which may have landed back on Ukrainian territory after probably straying off course during a Russian mass missile attack on Ukraine.
He further explained that when a Russian missile threatens to fall in Poland, it is safer to the Polish population to shoot it down while it is at a higher altitude in Ukraine's skies. Sikorski has said of this plan, "Ukrainians have told us: you’re welcome."
Some Western officials have warned that this would move the red lines too rapidly, and get NATO too directly involved, likely triggering direct war with Russia. But a defense analyst in Kiev, Mykola Nazarov, pushed back against this, telling FT, "We’ve seen that some red lines can be moved."
The ongoing Kursk operation is currently being used of Ukrainian officials to signal to the West that it doesn't have to worry about Putin following through on his stated red lines. President Zelensky is also ramping up the pressure campaign to take all restrictions off regarding use of long-range missiles on Russian territory.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is soon expected to retire from the top post, has rejected the Polish proposal and asserted that it presents too much risk of NATO "becoming part of the conflict." Of course, at this point this seems to be exactly what Zelensky wants (to drag the West deeper into the war on Ukraine's behalf).
And NATO's outgoing deputy secretary general Mircea Geoană also explained to the FT, "We have to do whatever we can to help Ukraine and do whatever we can to avoid escalation. And this is where the line of Nato is consistent from the very beginning of the war."
"Of course we respect every ally’s sovereign right to deliver national security. But within Nato, we always consult before going into something that could have consequences on all of us — and our Polish allies have always been impeccable in consulting inside the alliance," Geoană concluded.
But this debate will only intensify, especially given that on Tuesday President Zelensky said Russia mounted one of the single deadliest strikes of the entire war. A missile slammed into a military educational facility in Poltava, central Ukraine, killing at least 41 people and injuring over 180 others.
