Another case when russian cruise missile fell on Polish territory, this time at distance of 100 km from border, raised among Poles themselves legitimate question of whether their air defense system is so reliable.
This involves demonstration of stable helplessness and already about 7 separate significant incidents. Starting from December 2022, when russian Kh-55 cruise missile with nuclear warhead simulator flew 450 km deep into country and fell near Bydgoszcz. And also with russian September 2025 attack using over 20 Gerberas, of which only 4 were shot down.
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At the same time, Warsaw invested tens of billions of dollars in purchasing F-35 fighters and Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. But if air defense system itself has flaws, then its assets, which are only instruments in defenders' hands, may quite remain helpless. Head of Polish analytical defense center Defence Institute, retired General Jarosław Gromadziński, specifically noted this, who also argued that without Ukraine's help one cannot manage.
He noted current Polish airspace protection system relies on duty fighter pairs. At the same time, ground air defense assets are still not deployed along border with Ukraine and Belarus.
Defense Express notes air component of air defense, meaning Ukraine's Air Force fighters, quite demonstrates high effectiveness, at same time ground component, SAM systems, are designed for facility protection. At the same time, Poland hardly has enough SAM systems for forming even thin red line along nearly 1,000 km border with Ukraine and Belarus, as even Patriot in question of destroying low-altitude aerial targets will be limited by direct radar line-of-sight range of target, which usually comprises approximately 40-50 km, depending on terrain.
But, as Jarosław Gromadziński believes, key should become strategic agreement between Warsaw and Kyiv for information exchange regarding aerial threats. Against this backdrop appropriate would be recalling Polish Armed Forces Operational Commander Ireneusz Nowak stated that before shooting down cruise missile it still needed to be identified, as Ukrainian fighters also operated near border, whose friend-or-foe system is not compatible with NATO.
Against this backdrop, quite logical would appear initiating process of Ukraine joining NATO overall integrated air defense system — NATINADS. Which unites all data from ground radars and other sensors, SAM systems, AWACS aircraft, fighters into single picture available to all participants and uses Link-16. At the same time, NATINADS does not contradict national information exchange systems.
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