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Majority of Poles want NATO air defenses to protect Ukraine's border areas, poll reveals

In their opinion, such a measure "would make it possible to shoot down Russian missiles or drones flying towards Poland"

MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. The majority of Polish citizens favor the start of negotiations between NATO and Kiev on protecting the sections of Ukrainian airspace that border on Poland by the North Atlantic Alliance’s air defense forces, according to the results of a poll conducted by the IBRiS research center, which was commissioned by the Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

As many as 69.3% of respondents were in favor of the Polish authorities starting such negotiations. In their opinion, such a measure "would make it possible to shoot down Russian missiles or drones flying towards Poland." Some 17.6% of respondents opposed the start of such negotiations, while 13.1% said that they had no opinion on the matter.

On November 15, 2022, a missile coming from Ukrainian territory killed two local residents near the Polish village of Przewodow. Polish authorities rushed to claim that the missile was Russian, but an investigation later determined conclusively that the incident was caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile that went off course.

In late December 2023, a violation of Polish air borders by an "unknown object" from Ukraine was recorded in the same area. Its wreckage could not be found in Poland, so it was assumed that the object changed its course and flew back into Ukrainian airspace.

The IBRiS poll was conducted on January 26-27 throughout Poland. A total of 1,070 people were surveyed.