Poland can shoot down Russian missiles that fly towards its territory and threaten Ukrainian gas storage facilities.
Points of attention
- Shooting down the missiles will contribute to the security of not only Ukraine, but also Poland and other European countries.
- Poland is studying a proposal to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine and may support this idea under the condition of support from its NATO allies.
- The protection of Ukrainian gas storage facilities is an important aspect of the common defense policy of Ukraine and Poland.
Why Poland can shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine is already working on this issue and has taken the first step towards its implementation. However, currently there are specific nuances.
From the very beginning, these were "red lines" for the respective partners, some partners. Not everyone believes that these are "red lines;" however, the decisive vote should still have been united, although we started working on a bilateral level.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
President of Ukraine
According to Zelenskyy, this is primarily a question of the security of Poland, a NATO country, and the security of the Polish people. Just a missile can get there and cause a tragedy.
We just have different opinions about this direction. And I think that would be fair. For the security of the western part of our country, where there are gas storage facilities, and for Poland, because this is the same direction of the Russian missile. I believe that it is absolutely fair if Poland helps us to shoot down missiles that are headed in the direction of Poland, said Zelenskyy.
He noted that we are talking in particular about missiles that fly in the direction of gas storage facilities in Ukraine, where they often fly. Zelenskyy drew attention to the fact that the countries that are skeptical about this idea are precisely those countries that use gas from Ukrainian gas storages.
It seems to me that this skepticism of the countries should decrease, because if we do not protect our gas storages, then these countries will remain without gas during the heating season. Our closest neighbors. We have signed bilateral security guarantees with Poland, where there is a technical consideration of this issue. We raised this issue and raised it legally, Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasised.
Poland is considering a proposal to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine
The Polish authorities are currently considering Kyiv's proposal to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine and may even agree to it, but this decision must be supported by Poland's NATO allies.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, made a statement on this occasion.
At this stage it is an idea. Our agreement states that we will study this idea, Radoslav Sikorsky said.
According to him, the proposal for Poland to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine was included in the joint defence agreement between the two countries.
