A Russian military helicopter violated Polish airspace for less than a minute on Wednesday morning, prompting Poland to scramble fighter jets and place ground forces on alert in what Warsaw described as a deliberate provocation. The Polish Army Operational Command said an Mi-8 helicopter crossed from Kaliningrad — a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, separated from mainland Russia and bordered by Poland to the south and Lithuania to the north — at 11:08 local time, penetrating Polish territory to a depth of roughly 300 metres for 42 seconds near the town of Braniewo in northeastern Poland, approximately 100 kilometres from the port city of Gdańsk. Russia did not immediately respond to the incident.

Polish military authorities said the aircraft was tracked by radar throughout the incursion and stated plainly that