Poland to Shut Its Airspace to Russian Airlines Amid Ukraine Crisis

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks during a press conference at the end of the second day of a European Union leaders meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 22, 2021. John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

WARSAW, Poland—Russian airlines will be banned from entering Polish airspace, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday, a day after Russian forces moved against Ukraine with a multi-pronged invasion that has sent Western leaders scrambling to mount a response.

“I have ordered the preparation of a resolution of the council of ministers which will lead to the closure of the airspace over Poland to Russian airlines,” Morawiecki wrote in a post on Twitter.

Polish government spokesperson Piotr Muller later clarified in a statement that the ban would come into force on Friday at midnight.

Michal Orzechowski, a Polish author and documentary filmmaker, said the move is more than just symbolic.

“The air corridor over Poland is a key transport pathway for the Kremlin and one of the most important air transit routes between Russia and Europe,” Orzechowski said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

“That’s why the airspace blockade is more than just a gesture of symbolic significance—it also helps keep Russian aggression in check,” he insisted.

People gather in front of a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, on Feb. 25, 2022. Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

With the move, Poland joins the UK, which on Friday banned Russian aircraft from entering British airspace, including over its territorial sea.

“I’ve signed restrictions prohibiting all scheduled Russian airlines from entering UK airspace or touching down on British soil," British transport secretary Grant Shapps wrote on Twitter. "Putin’s heinous actions will not be ignored, and we will never tolerate those who put people’s lives in danger.”

The airspace bans come as Russian forces on Thursday launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, with a flood of dramatic images on social media showing tanks rolling down highways, combat helicopters firing missiles, fireballs exploding, and plumes of black smoke.

Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the action a “special military operation” to knock out Ukraine’s military capacity and neutralize it as an alleged NATO-aligned threat to Moscow. He insists he has no intention of occupying the country and that civilians aren’t being targeted.

Western leaders say Putin’s actions are a baseless large-scale invasion meant to effect regime change in Westward-looking Ukraine and a violation of international law.

European leaders on Friday unanimously condemned Russian military action against Ukraine and adopted a package of tough sanctions.

“Today, the EU, the U.S., and other allies speak with one voice: stop the armed aggression, stop the bloodshed, stop Putin’s imperialism,” Morawiecki wrote on Twitter, who earlier called for “the fiercest possible sanctions.”

“Our support for Ukraine must be real,” he wrote in a separate post on Twitter.

Ukrainian military vehicles move past Independence square in central Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

Orzechowski told The Epoch Times that NATO could ramp up the effectiveness of its support to Ukraine by establishing a no-fly zone over the country. It’s an idea that has been put forward by some British lawmakers but rejected by the country’s top leadership as tantamount to a declaration of war against Russia.

“To do a no-fly zone, I would have to put British fighter jets directly against Russian fighter jets,” UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said, according to the Independent.

“NATO will have to effectively declare war on Russia, because that’s what you would do,” he continued, adding that if “we were to directly attack Russian aircraft, we would have a war across Europe.”

Russia has imposed a retaliatory measure on British aircraft, banning them from entering Russian airspace.

“That’s their tit for tat response,” Wallace told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.