Drones in Poland: Belarus Calls it a Mistake, Kyiv an Attack

The First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, Chief of the General Staff, Major General Pavel Muraveyko, made a statement, also addressing the fact of Russian UAVs entering the airspace of Poland.

"During the exchange of nighttime mutual strikes with unmanned aerial vehicles between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the on-duty forces and assets of the air defense of the Republic of Belarus continuously monitored the unmanned aerial vehicles that had lost their direction due to the influence of the electronic warfare means of the parties.

Some of the lost unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed by the air defense forces of our country in the territory of the republic. Taking into account the existing channels of interaction, in the period from 23:00 on September 9 to 04:00 on September 10, our on-duty forces and assets exchanged information about the air and radar situation with the on-duty forces and assets of the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania. Thus, they were informed about the approach of unknown flying objects to the territory of their countries.

This allowed the Polish side to react promptly to the actions of the unmanned aerial vehicles by scrambling its on-duty forces," stated Pavel Muraveyko, adding that the Polish side also informed the on-duty combat crews of the Republic of Belarus about unidentified flying objects approaching the border of the Republic of Belarus from the territory of Ukraine.

Kyiv counters the claims that the Russian UAVs ended up in Poland by mistake. Ukrainian media claim that the Kremlin has been preparing for drone attacks on Poland since July and that Polish SIM cards have already been detected in Russian drones.

Defense Express writes that the Russians have long been using 4G modems with SIM cards to transmit intelligence information from their drones, and Polish SIM cards were noticed in shot-down Russian UAVs in Ukraine as early as the beginning of July, about which Warsaw was warned. Polish journalist Marek Budzisz also wrote about this back on July 10. "The Ukrainians report that SIM cards from Poland and Lithuania have been found in shot-down Russian attack drones.

They believe this may indicate preparations for testing attack corridors in the direction of the two countries, as it is known that they use telecommunication networks to correct the flight path of the drones. Or they could intensify attacks in western Ukraine. The task of the Polish intelligence services is to find out who bought the SIM cards, as registration is required after purchase," the journalist noted.

It is difficult to say to what extent Poland believes in Belarus's sincerity. In any case, Polish sources report that on the morning of September 10, the movement of Polish military equipment towards the border with Belarus was observed.