Overview
- The Operational Command reported that Polish fighter jets on 25 December intercepted, visually identified, and escorted a Russian reconnaissance aircraft over international waters of the Baltic Sea near Poland's airspace boundary.
- Overnight radar tracks showed targets entering from the direction of Belarus that the military assessed as likely contraband-carrying weather balloons moving with the wind.
- For safety, part of the airspace over Podlaskie Voivodeship was temporarily closed to civilian traffic.
- The military said all detected targets were continuously monitored by radar and described the period as a tense night for Polish forces.
- The incidents were framed within ongoing regional pressures, including EU measures this month addressing Belarus's balloon launches and recent Russian strikes on Ukraine that have kept Polish defenses on alert.