Poland urgently summoned the authorized clerk of the Belarusian embassy after two Belarusian military helicopters violated the Polish airspace.
On Tuesday, the 1st of August, Polish media reported two Belarusian helicopters flying across Białowieża not far from the Polish-Belarusian border.
Photos of those helicopters were published by a local volunteer Eliza Kovalchik.
According to independent investigators helicopters Mi-24 and Mi-8 had flew at least 3 km into Poland, then turned around and returned to Belarus.
BREAKING:
Poland announces that 2 Belarusian military helicopters intruded Polish airspace today, flying across the Białowieża National Park.
The flew across the border at a low altitude to avoid radar and then quickly returned back home.
Belarus is trying to escalate tensions pic.twitter.com/gXpsyGqSNR
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 1, 2023
At first Polish authorities denied that the country’s airspace had been breached, claiming that the tracking system had not noticed Belarusian helicopters.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland made a strong protest and summoned the Belarusian side to provide a detailed explanation of the incident,” the statement from the ministry stated.
“The Polish side stressed that the incident was seen as yet another element in the escalation of tensions on Poland’s Belarusian border. Poland expects Belarus to refrain from this type of activity,” noted the ministry.
The Belarusian Ministry of Defence denies accusations about the alleged breach of Polish airspace.
“Accusations of breaching the Polish border by Belarusian air force and anti-air defence helicopters Mi-24 and Mi-8 are made-up, and Polish military authorities came up with them to justify the concentration of forces on the border with Belarus,” as mentioned in the statement published by Minsk official news agency BelTA.
“The Belarusian Ministry of Defence considers statements from the Polish side not confirmed by objective control data in the style of “some woman told me”. The ministry stresses the helicopters Mi-24 and Mi-8 did not violate the [Polish] airspace,” adds the Belarusian ministry.
According to the Polish Ministry of Defence, helicopters that were participating in military exercises close to the border had violated the country’s airspace.
Minsk did inform Warsaw of the military exercises.
“The border-crossing took place near Białowieża at a low altitude, which made it difficult to detect the aircraft with radar systems,” the Polish ministry’s statement mentions.
“This is why Polish Armed Forces Operational Headquarters reported that Polish radar systems had not registered a breach of the Polish airspace,” the ministry explains.
Poland has informed NATO of this incident.
“Let us remind you that Russia and Belarus have recently activated their hybrid activities against Poland,” the statement mentions.
“Considering further possible provocations, we invite responsible reporting and commenting of information Russian and Belarusian regimes could potentially use,” the ministry invites.
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