Duda hopehul NATO will eventually agree to down Russian missiles over Ukraine

NATO has not yet come to an agreement as to the allies’ militaries shooting down Russian missiles while flying over Ukraine, but such an agreement is possible. An argument in favor of this might be that Russia had violated Poland’s sovereign airspace several times with its missiles.

Polish President Andrzej Duda made a statement to this effect while speaking at a joint press conference with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Šimonite, Ukrinform reports.

The issue of NATO countries shooting down Russian missiles while flying over Ukraine’s territory remains to be a "red line" for many of the Allies, but discussions on that matter are ongoing within the Alliance, Duda said, adding that the issue was raised during his talks on Saturday with the President and Prime Minister of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky and Denys Shmyhal.

The President of the Republic of Poland noted that it was Warsaw who was the first to raise the issue of NATO member militaries taking out Russian missiles flying over Ukraine during a Paris meeting of the heads of state this February. He furthermore added that the weapons for this task will be deployed in NATO territory or airspace.

This matter has been in debate for almost a year now, the Polish President said.

"I am hopeful that NATO members will be eventually convinced of the necessity of this move," Mr Duda added.

He said that an argument in favor of such a decision might be that "Russia violated NATO’s (Poland’s – ed.) airspace with missiles at least on two occurrences".

"And this fact alone would indicate that such actions (NATO shooting down Russian missiles over Ukraine - ed.) would be legitimate," Duda stated.

Kyiv has long been urging Warsaw and NATO to agree to shooting down Russian missiles while still flying over western Ukraine.

Read more: We in NATO should be ready to discuss bold ideas regarding joint missile defense of Ukraine’s airspace: Ingrida Šimonite

President Duda, in a speech delivered on Kyiv’s Sofia Square, said that Ukraine's Independence Day is a holiday of independence for all of Central Europe, because without an independent Ukraine, there cannot be an independent Poland or other countries in the region.