In response to comments made by former foreign minister Radosław Sikorski, the leader of PiS Jarosław Kaczyński has said that “only a fool would suggest that Poland should have fired on the Belarusian helicopters” that encroached on its airspace earlier in the week.
Radosław Sikorski, MEP, and former foreign minister for the liberal Civic Platform (PO), said in a radio interview on Thursday that Poland could have should have shot down the Belarusian helicopters, pointing to the fact that Belarus has in the past shot down U.S. balloons that entered its airspace. He added that he saw no difference between Wagner mercenaries potentially entering Poland and Belarusian helicopters encroaching on Polish airspace, and neither should be allowed.
Jarosław Kaczyński told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that Russian planes regularly encroach on the airspace of other states. They are countered by NATO planes but not shot down. “This was a very short provocation, and only someone very foolish would have responded to the bait and shot with real bullets. Putin and Lukashenko would have been delighted had we done that,” said Kaczyński.
Kaczyński refused to remark further on Sikorski’s remarks, stating that the former foreign minister’s tweets congratulating the U.S. for destroying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had already given Putin ammunition at the UN.
The incident on Tuesday involved two Belarusian helicopters, which were spotted by locals. The authorities at first did not confirm the incursion into Poland, as the helicopters had flown low enough to evade radar detection. However, later that same day, the authorities acknowledged that an incursion had taken place; they then protested the incident to the Belarusians and informed NATO about it.
The ruling party leader expects more provocations. This is why Poland will not go back to defending itself well away from its borders as was the military doctrine of the previous liberal government. Kaczyński noted that Lukashenko has in the past experienced hopes that there might be a change of government in Warsaw.
Finally, he dismissed criticism coming from the liberal PO, saying that it had its chance and failed to prepare Poland for Putin’s aggression and that the ruling conservatives were now building the strongest land army in Europe to make sure Poles are secure.
