Poland scrambles aircraft after Russia launches strikes on Ukraine

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(Reuters) -Polish and allied aircraft were deployed early on Saturday to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched airstrikes targeting western Ukraine near the border with Poland, armed forces of the NATO-member country said.

Eastern-flank NATO members are on high alert after Poland shot down suspected Russian drones in its airspace earlier this month, and three Russian military jets violated NATO Estonia’s airspace for 12 minutes on Friday.

“Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness,” the operational command said in a post on X.

At 0340 GMT, nearly all of Ukraine was under air raid alerts following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks. Shortly after 0500 GMT, Polish and allied air forces ended the preventative operation as Russian airstrikes against Ukraine had ceased, Polish operational command said.

Separately a Polish prosecutor said on Saturday authorities had most likely identified the last of two dozen drones that entered Polish airspace 10 days ago, lying in a field in the municipality of Korsze in northeastern Poland, PAP newswire reported

“At this point, we believe it is the last of the drones being searched for that entered Polish territory on the night of September 9-10.” Dariusz Brodowski, spokesman of Olsztyn district prosecutor, told PAP.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw; Editing by William Mallard, Kirsten Donovan, Gareth Jones)