Poland’s deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday that NATO is considering shooting down Russian missiles that come too close to the alliance’s borders, two days after Poland reported a violation of its airspace.

Warsaw said on Sunday that a Russian cruise missile fired overnight at cities in western Ukraine penetrated Polish airspace within 39 seconds.

Poland’s defense minister announced that Poland had activated all its air defense systems and that the missile would have been shot down if there had been the slightest indication that it was headed for a target on Polish soil.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Schejna told local radio RMF24 on Tuesday that “various concepts are being analyzed in NATO” after the incident, “including shooting down these missiles when they are very close to NATO’s borders,” of which Poland is a part.

“But this can be done only with the consent of the Ukrainian side and taking into account the international consequences,” Sheyna added.

On Monday, Warsaw complained that Russia’s ambassador to Poland had ignored an official summons to Poland’s foreign ministry after the missile incident.

Poland later reported that Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski discussed the matter with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

During the phone call, Stoltenberg “recalled that NATO has significantly increased its vigilance and strengthened its position on the Alliance’s eastern flank, particularly in Poland,” a senior NATO official said on Tuesday.

At the end of December, Poland already reported that a Russian missile entered its airspace, and a few minutes later left in the direction of Ukraine.

A year earlier, in December 2022, another Russian Kh-55 cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads fell in Poland, but its remains were found only in April 2023 by a passer-by in a forest near Bydgoszcz, in the north, about 500 kilometers from the country’s eastern border .

In November 2022, two people died as a result of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile falling into the Polish village of Przewodow, not far from the border with Ukraine. (Agerpress)