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Germany offers Patriots to guard Polish airspace
Summary
A retrospective on the German offer of air defence to Poland after a missile struck the village of Przewodów.
What did Berlin offer Warsaw a week 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 offer followed the explosion of 15 November 2022 in Przewodów, a village near the border with Ukraine. The blast killed two people and came during Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
What was known about the blast
Initially Ukraine 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. Later, in September 2023, the Polish Prosecutor's Office stated that the explosion was caused by an out-of-control Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile.
The incident was the first in which a foreign missile hit NATO territory during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Against that backdrop, the German proposal and Poland's acceptance on 22 November 2022 put air defence assets on the border to protect Polish airspace.
