Polish Military Failed to Scramble Jets in Time After Airspace Violation From Ukraine

WARSAW (Sputnik) - The Polish military scrambled jets to intercept and take down a missile that violated the airspace from the territory of Ukraine, but did not manage to do so in time, Polish military Operational Commander Maciej Klisz said on Friday.

Earlier in the day, the Polish armed forces said that an unidentified aerial object entered Polish airspace from Ukraine, it was monitored by air defense, and then disappeared from the radars. Later, Polish President Andrzej Duda has arranged an urgent meeting with the military leadership after a violation of the country's airspace.

"We sent forces, planes, which were supposed to intercept it and, if necessary, shoot it down. But the time of its [missile's] stay in Poland, as well as the nature of its maneuvering, made this impossible. Therefore, the missile left the territory of Poland," Klisz told reporters.

The Polish General Staff in turn said that the missile that violated the country's airspace allegedly belonged to Russia, but provided no evidence on the matter.

"Everything indicates that the Russian missile invaded Polish airspace, we monitored it on the radar, and [it] left the airspace," Chief of the Polish General Staff Wieslaw Kukula told reporters.

At the same time, Kukula did not give any additional explanations and did not provide evidence of his claims.