MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The incident involving a Russian cruise missile that allegedly entered Polish airspace on the morning of March 24 was accidental, General Waldemar Skrzypczak, former Polish Land Forces commander, told the Polsat News TV channel.
"In my opinion it was an accident. It seems to me that the operator made a mistake, he erroneously programmed [the missile] without taking into account that it could have crossed the Polish border," the general said.
The former top commander opined that "NATO should take measures that would make it impossible for Russian missiles to fly uncontrolled into the airspace of allied countries."
At the same time, Skrzypczak pointed out that "Ukrainian [air] defenses are getting weaker and weaker" and that such incidents could recur because of Ukraine's highly porous, "full-of-holes defense system."
Earlier, the Polish military reported a violation of the country's airspace on the border with Ukraine in the early morning hours of March 24. The Polish side alleged that it was a Russian cruise missile. According to the Polish command, the missile, allegedly launched by a Russian long-range aircraft, entered Polish airspace near the village of Oserdow, Lublin Voivodeship (province), on the border with Ukraine, and left 39 seconds later. No evidence has been provided to support these claims.
In late December 2023, the operational command reported that the Polish air borders had been violated by an unknown object. Later, Polish President Andrzej Duda convened an emergency meeting with the top brass at the Defense Ministry. The Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, General Wieslaw Kukula, said that a Russian missile had allegedly been detected in Warsaw’s airspace. After inspecting the area where the missile was seen entering the airspace from Ukraine, Polish servicemen found nothing that posed any threat.