Russian aircraft violates Polish airspace

WARSAW

A Russian aircraft violated Polish airspace on Tuesday afternoon, the Polish army said.

The incident occurred at 14:09 local time in the eastern part of the Bay of Gdansk in northern Poland. The Su-24MR aircraft belonging to the Russian Armed Forces violated the airspace over the territorial waters of Poland to a maximum depth of 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) and stayed there for 1 minute and 12 seconds, Poland’s Operational Command of the Armed Forces said in a statement.

"The flight of the aircraft was observed by the radar systems of the Polish Armed Forces. The flight route was immediately changed after the intervention of the navigator of the Russian Armed Forces," said the army.

"The Polish services on duty supervising the airspace were in contact with the Russian side, which confirmed the violation of Polish airspace and reported that it occurred due to a failure of the Su-24MR aircraft's navigation system," the Operational Command of the Armed Forces said.

Fears that the Ukraine conflict could spill over into neighboring Poland, a NATO member, have been ongoing since Russia attacked Ukraine three years ago.