Overview
- Poland’s air force said fighters intercepted, visually identified, and escorted a Russian reconnaissance aircraft over international waters of the Baltic Sea near the Polish airspace boundary.
- Radar tracked several dozen objects entering from Belarus overnight, with at least four assessed as likely smuggling balloons drifting with the wind, according to the Operational Command.
- Authorities temporarily closed a portion of civilian airspace over the Podlaskie region for safety and reported continuous radar monitoring of all detected objects.
- Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said the situation was fully under control, nearly 20,000 personnel were on duty, and no immediate threat to Polish airspace was identified.
- Poland’s National Security Bureau said the scale and holiday timing may indicate a staged provocation; Belarus has denied responsibility for similar balloon incidents and Belarusian and Russian embassies offered no immediate comment, as NATO’s eastern flank remains on heightened alert after recent violations.