Russian explosive drone discovered off Polish coast

A Russian explosive drone has once again been discovered on NATO territory: Polish armed forces fished the aircraft out of the Baltic Sea off the country's coast on Monday. Military prosecutor Bartosz Okoniewski explained that the Gerbera-2 drone was equipped with a “warhead with a detonator.” Investigations were underway on suspicion of endangering “the life or health of many people as well as property of great value.”

The drone was in the sea off the coast of the seaside resort of Rusinovo in the northwest of the country. Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz had already reported the find on Monday. He suspected that the aircraft was “lost” during Russian exercises over the Baltic Sea. According to Okoniewski, the investigations now revealed that the drone was “armed”.

Army special forces managed to separate the warhead from the aircraft and defuse it on the beach, the public prosecutor said. The drone is to be further examined at a military site.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said the drone found off Poland's Baltic Sea coast may also have flown over Lithuania. After attempts to render it harmless, the drone crossed the Lithuanian border to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and then most likely operated over the Baltic Sea. Both countries are in the process of clarifying the incidents together.

There are always foreign drones in Polish airspace

The EU and NATO country Poland is an important political and military ally of Ukraine, which is attacked by Russia. At the same time, it sees itself under threat from Moscow and has repeatedly reported the intrusion of foreign drones into its own territory since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in 2022. It was only on Sunday that a Russian drone attack on a train from Kyiv to Warsaw shortly before the border with Poland alerted the Polish government.

Poland borders both Ukraine and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

In Germany, a drone loaded with explosives was discovered at Leipzig Airport at the beginning of August, near which Ukrainian cargo planes were located. The federal government speaks of an attempted attack for which it blames Russia.