Poland scrambles fighter jets and closes airports after Russian strikes near its border with Ukraine

Poland temporarily closed Rzeszów and Lublin airports and scrambled Polish and allied aircraft as a precaution after Russia launched strikes on western Ukraine close to the Polish border, the country's armed forces said.

Quick-reaction fighter pairs and an early warning aircraft were scrambled, while ground-based air defence and radar systems were moved to their highest state of readiness, the operational command said in a post on X.

The alerts followed a wave of Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine, with almost the entire country under air raid warnings around 04:00 GMT/05:00 in Poland and 04:00 in the United Kingdom. For more info, check out the post below.