Polish jets intercept Russian plane as tensions rise with Moscow, Belarus

Poland says its fighter jets intercepted and escorted a Russian reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea on December 25 after the plane approached the country’s airspace during a night that also saw a wave of airspace incursions from Belarus. According to the Polish National Security Bureau and Armed Forces, Polish radar systems detected and tracked “dozens of unidentified objects,” at least four of which were later confirmed as smuggling balloons that crossed into Polish airspace from Belarus. The latest tensions come as Warsaw and Moscow trade warnings over a seized consular building in Gdańsk. Polish officials were barred from entering the former Russian consulate on December 22, prompting Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to assert that the property “belongs to the Russian Federation” and caution Poland’s “hotheads” against further “illegal and provocative actions,” warning that Russia’s responses would be ‘painful.’