Poland is to deport a young Ukrainian back to his homeland after he triggered a security scare by flying a drone over government buildings in Warsaw, police said Wednesday.
Air defences are on high alert after an incursion into Polish air space last week by around 20 military drones, in what Warsaw alleged was a deliberate Russian provocation.
On Monday, an unidentified drone was spotted flying over a government complex that hosts one of Warsaw’s presidential residences as well as offices used by the prime minister and defence minister.
Police “neutralised” the drone and arrested two people, a 21-year-old Ukrainian man and a 17-year-old Belarusian girl.
Warsaw police spokesman Jacek Wisniewski told AFP the young man had violated Polish aviation law and would be fined, expelled from Poland to Ukraine and banned from Europe’s Schengen travel area for five years.
“Today, he will be handed over to the Ukrainian border guards,” Dagmara Bielec, a spokeswoman for the Polish border police, told AFP.
The Belarusian citizen was questioned by police and released without charge, Wisniewski said.
Russia denies that it targeted Poland during last week’s large-scale drone incursion, but Poland’s European allies have denounced the “provocation” and stepped up air defence support to their NATO ally.
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