Poland denies its helicopter breached Belarusian airspace

Warsaw has denied Belarusian allegations, as reported by Reuters news agency, that a Polish helicopter crossed the Belarusian border on Thursday.

Reuters wrote earlier in the day, citing the Belarusian Ministry of Defence, that a Polish aircraft allegedly violated Belarusian airspace twice on Thursday, at 3:20 pm (1:20 pm Polish time), and at 4:22 pm (2:22 pm Polish time. The first time, the Polish helicopter was said to fly 1.5 km into the Belarusian airspace, the second time - to a depth of 300 metres.

The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces (DORSZ) reacted to these reports on social media on Thursday evening.

"We would like to inform you that today's statement by the Belarusian side about the alleged crossing of the border by a Polish helicopter is untrue. This is confirmed by the flight control and radar station records - no such event took place," DORSZ wrote on the X platform.

"All information provided by the media is subjected to in-depth analysis... however, information provided by the Belarusian regime's media must always be approached with caution and prudence, as it has often been an element of provocation and disinformation," the post read.

DORSZ also said that the Polish army "contrary to the continuous provocative actions of the Republic of Belarus, invariably respects and complies with all provisions and regulations regarding the inviolability of borders."

DORSZ spokesman, Jacek Goryszewski, reiterated for PAP that both the records of the radar systems and all other reports exclude the possibility of the Polish helicopter violating Belarusian space. He assessed such reports from the Belarusian regime could be treated as an attempt at provocation.

Similar Belarusian accusations appeared in early September when Minsk said that a Polish MI-24 helicopter gunship had crossed the Belarusian border, flying to a distance of 1.2 kilometres inside Belarusian territory before returning to Poland.

These allegations were also dismissed by DORSZ as lies and a provocation.