By Alan Charlish and Lidia Kelly
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland said it scrambled its own and NATO air defences to shoot down drones on Wednesday after a Russian air attack on western Ukraine, the first time in the Ukraine war that Warsaw has engaged assets in its airspace.
Poland's military command said Polish airspace was repeatedly violated by "drone-type objects" during the Russian attack across the border in Ukraine.
"An operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralising these objects ... weapons
have been used, and service personnel are carrying out actions to locate the downed objects," it said in a statement.
It said the military operation was ongoing and urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk.
"The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the situation, and subordinate forces and units remain on full readiness for immediate response," it added.
Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Polish aircraft had "used weapons against hostile objects".
"We are in constant contact with NATO command," he added on X.
Poland also closed four airports including its main Chopin Airport in Warsaw, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. There was no official confirmation from Polish authorities that any airports had been closed.
The Rzeszow–Jasionka Airport in Poland's southeast, a hub for passenger and arms transfers to Ukraine, was among the airports that had been temporarily closed, the FAA said.
Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been briefed on reports of Russian drones over Poland, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said on Tuesday. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As of 0315 GMT, all of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, had been under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukraine's air force.
Earlier, Ukraine's air force reported that Russian drones had entered NATO-member Poland's airspace, posing a threat to the city of Zamosc, but it subsequently removed that statement from the Telegram messaging app.
'ACT OF WAR'
In the United States, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones were a sign that "Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations."
"After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored," he said on X.
Republican representative Joe Wilson, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a post on X that was Russia was "attacking NATO ally Poland" with drones, calling it an "act of war".
"We are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putin’s continued unprovoked aggression against free and productive nations," he added.
Wilson urged U.S. President Donald Trump to respond with sanctions "that will bankrupt the Russian war machine".
"Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in NATO territory," he said.
Poland has been on high alert for objects entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile struck a southern Polish village in 2022, killing two people, a few months into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But there have been no reports of Polish or allied defence systems destroying drones.
Poland earlier said it would close its border with Belarus on Thursday at midnight local time as a result of Russia-led military exercises taking place in Belarus.
Russia and Belarus' large-scale military exercises, known as the "Zapad" drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring NATO member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Lithuania said defences along its border with Belarus and Russia would be strengthened due to the exercises.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, David Shepardson, Steve Gorman and Andrea Shalal in Washington, and Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Stephen Coates)
