Polish forces nearly fired on Ukrainian MiG-29 during Russian missile incursion, commander says
Polish forces came close to potentially opening fire on a Ukrainian MiG-29 during a Russian missile incursion in July because they had not been informed that the Ukrainian fighter was operating near the border, Poland's operational commander has revealed.
The incident prompted Ukraine and Poland to change their information-sharing procedures for Ukrainian aircraft operating near Polish airspace.
Gen. Ireneusz Nowak, commander of Poland's Armed Forces Operational Command, described the incident in an interview with Rzeczpospolita.
It occurred early on July 30, when Russia launched a large-scale missile attack on western Ukraine and a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace.
Poland had two fighter jets on alert at the time. One was refueling in the air while the other F-16 was operating near the Ukrainian border.
At around 3:40 a.m., neither the Polish pilot nor commanders monitoring the situation could identify another aircraft operating immediately next to the border.
It was a Ukrainian MiG-29. The fighter was being tracked both by the Polish F-16 and by some of Poland's ground-based air defense systems.
“There was a risk of friendly fire,” Nowak said.
He said that had the Ukrainian pilot crossed into Polish airspace - something that could have happened within about 30 seconds - Polish forces might have had to decide whether to open fire.
Following the incident, Poland's Operational Command asked Ukraine's General Staff and Air Force to notify it about Ukrainian military aircraft operating near the Polish border.
Before July 30, Poland received information through Ukraine's Virazh air defense command-and-control system about Russian missiles and drones that could potentially enter Polish airspace, but not about Ukrainian aircraft.
Ukraine has since begun sharing information about its own aircraft operating near the border, Nowak said.
The commander acknowledged why Kyiv had previously been reluctant to share such data, saying information about when and where Ukrainian aircraft operate is particularly sensitive because Russia seeks to destroy them on the ground.
The July 30 incident occurred as Russian missiles approached Poland during a major attack on Ukraine. A Kh-101 cruise missile ultimately crossed into Polish airspace and crashed near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in Lublin Voivodeship.
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