Belarus announced on Wednesday that it had shot down drones that had strayed into its territory during overnight attacks by both Russia and Ukraine.
"During the night-time exchange of strikes by UAVs between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the Air Defence Forces and assets of the Republic of Belarus on duty continuously tracked UAVs that had lost their track as a result of the impact of the parties' electronic warfare assets," Belarus Chief of the General Staff Major General Pavel Muraveiko said in a statement issued in English. “Some of the lost drones were destroyed by our country's Air Defense Forces over the territory of the republic,” Muraveiko went on saying, without revealing the number of drones.
His remarks came after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed on Wednesday that 19 drones breached Poland’s airspace, and that a “large proportion” of the drones entered it from Russia’s ally Belarus. Tusk announced that Article 4 of NATO treaty was invoked. NATO allies jointly downed multiple Russian drones that intruded into Poland’s airspace with Dutch fighter jets. Muraveiko said Poland and Lithuania were informed of the approach of the drones, which in his words “allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty.”
"Belarus will continue to fulfill its obligations within the framework of the exchange of information on the air situation with the Republic of Poland and the Baltic countries,” Muraveiko went on saying.
