London
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British fighters flew through Poland on Friday night after Russian drones violated Poland airspace earlier this month, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
Two typhoon fighters will take off from the royal air base in Lincolnshire and “patrol the Polish sky, deter and defend against air threats from Russia, including drones,” the ministry said in a statement.
The mission was carried out at NATO’s Eastern Sentry Operation, an initiative launched last week in light of Russia’s Polish airspace violations. In addition to the UK, the business includes assets from Denmark, France and Germany.
The ministry said the UK’s commitment to NATO was “unshakable” and that Friday night’s mission followed “a reckless and dangerous invasion of Polish sovereign space by Russian drones, the most important violation of NATO airspace since the illegal full-scale ugraint of the Ukrain.”
Europe is strongly wary as invasions through Polish airspace violated last week through airspaces in several other NATO countries.
On September 9, Poland fired down a Russian drone that violated the airspace. This violation caused a quick action alert, seeing scramble aircraft from the Polish Air Force and Allied forces.
The operation marked the first shot fired by NATO since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. The military alliance condemned Moscow’s “absolutely dangerous” actions.
A few days later, the Russian drone violated Romanian airspace and urged Bucharest to scramble fighter jets.
On Friday, NATO intercepted three Russian MIG-31 fighter jets that violated Estonian airspace, which Estonia called “unprecedented brave” incidents.
