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Germany offers Patriots to guard Polish airspace
Summary
A retrospective on the German offer of air defence for Poland after the missile blast at Przewodów, and Warsaw's acceptance.
What did Berlin offer Warsaw after a missile killed two people on Polish soil? On 22 November 2022, Germany said it would deploy Patriot surface-to-air missile systems on the Poland–Ukraine border to protect Polish airspace. Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said he had accepted the German proposal.
The announcement followed the explosion on 15 November 2022 in the village of Przewodów, near the border with Ukraine, which killed two people. The blast came during Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Competing accounts of the strike
Ukraine initially accused Russia of striking Poland. The United States, however, said the missile was likely an air defence missile fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile.
That assessment was later confirmed. In September 2023, the Polish Prosecutor's Office stated that the explosion had been caused by an out-of-control Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile. None of that was settled on 22 November 2022, but the German offer and the Polish acceptance were reported that day as part of the response to the incident.
The exchange between Berlin and Warsaw was brief: one side proposed the Patriot deployment, and the other agreed to it.
