Poland deployed military aircraft in its own airspace and temporarily closed Lublin airport on Saturday, 13 September, citing a threat from drone strikes in adjacent regions of Ukraine.
The Operational Command said the measures were preventative, involved Polish and allied aircraft, and placed ground-based air defence and radar systems on their highest state of readiness.
The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PAŻP) confirmed the suspension of flights at Lublin and the closure of the controlled zone around the airport “due to military aviation activities”. Polish media reported that air operations resumed after the military concluded its mission, with the Operational Command announcing completion of the activity in the early evening. The deployment lasted roughly two hours.
Authorities said no violation of Polish airspace was detected during Saturday’s operation. One commercial flight bound for Lublin from Rome was diverted to Katowice during the closure, according to local business media. Poland’s Government Security Centre also issued an alert for several eastern counties during the episode.
Saturday’s alert followed a significant incident earlier in the week. During the night of 9–10 September, Poland reported at least 19 incursions by Russian drones amid a wider strike on Ukraine. Subsequent searches located debris in 17 localities across five voivodeships, including 10 sites in Lublin Voivodeship. Polish forces, with support from NATO allies, engaged and shot down drones during that incident.
In response to the 9–10 September breach, NATO announced on Friday the launch of Operation Eastern Sentry to reinforce air and ground defences along the Alliance’s eastern flank. Secretary General Mark Rutte described the incursions as “reckless and unacceptable” and said additional allied assets, including fighter jets, would be deployed under a flexible mission concept led by Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Alexus Grynkewich.
The United States joined 43 countries in condemning the airspace violation at the UN Security Council on 12 September. President Donald Trump suggested the drones may have entered Polish airspace “by mistake”, a characterisation rejected by senior Polish officials, including the prime minister and foreign minister. Russia said it had not intended to hit targets in Poland.
Regional airspace concerns were not confined to Poland on Saturday. Romanian authorities said they scrambled F-16s after a drone breached Romania’s airspace during attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure near the Danube delta, though the object later disappeared from radar.
Lublin’s short, precautionary shutdown on 13 September is the second time this week that Polish civil aviation has been disrupted by military measures linked to drone activity over or near Ukraine. In the overnight hours of 9–10 September, airspace restrictions were imposed over multiple Polish airports as the drone incursion unfolded; operations were subsequently restored.
Polish authorities framed Saturday’s action as a limited, pre-emptive measure designed to ensure safety over eastern provinces abutting the Ukrainian border, where Ukrainian warnings about hostile drones have been recurrent throughout Russia’s campaign against energy and logistics targets. The Operational Command noted that aircraft from allied nations operated alongside Polish jets during the alert, reflecting the broader NATO posture introduced after the mid-week incursion.
By early evening on 13 September, the Operational Command said air operations had ended and that ground-based air defence and radar units had returned to routine status. PAŻP indicated that normal civil operations at Lublin could resume, subject to any further military requirements.
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