Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced on Friday that Warsaw is considering a proposal from Kiev to shoot down Russian missiles headed for Polish territory while still in Ukrainian airspace.

The proposal was included in a joint defense agreement between the two countries signed during President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Warsaw earlier this week.

“At this stage, this is an idea. What our agreement states is that we will explore this idea,” the Polish official clarified, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

He pointed out that some Russian missiles fired from the St Petersburg area at Ukrainian targets near the western city of Lviv, not far from the Ukrainian-Polish border, crossed Belarus and entered Polish airspace for about 40 seconds before turning towards their targets. in Ukraine.

Mr Sikorski acknowledged that such a short timeframe gave Poland little time to react. However, the proposal would theoretically cover any missile that crosses western Ukraine into Poland.

“We are a state on the front line, and Russian missiles are violating our airspace. We assume by mistake”, said the Polish Foreign Minister.

“Our dilemma is this. If we only shoot them down once they have entered our airspace, the debris poses a threat to our civilians and property. And the Ukrainians say, “Please, we don’t mind, do it in our airspace” when there is an imminent danger of crossing into Polish territory. In my opinion, this is self-defense, but we are exploring the idea,” Sikorski noted.

He added that an unarmed Russian missile landed near his home in Bydgoszcz, about 500 kilometers from the Belarusian border, without harming anyone, in December 2022.

Two Polish citizens were killed from falling debris when Ukraine shot down a Russian missile near the Polish border a month earlier.

Earlier this week, Władysław Kośniak-Kamis made it clear that Warsaw would consult with its NATO allies and seek their agreement before attempting to shoot down any Russian missile.

“If there is such a decisioncan only be an allied decisions. It will never be an individual decision,” he told Polish television station TVN from the NATO summit in Washington. “The basic opinion is that the United States is quite skeptical on this issue, so Poland will certainly not make such a decision on its own,” he added.

A defense analyst at Polityka Insight, warned the BBC that the idea can prove dangerous for Poland.

“Without strong coalition support, which does not exist, this proposal is very dangerous,” he said.

“In terms of our air defenses and the fact that we can suffer some kind of Russian response” he added.

Poland plans to provide additional military aid to Ukraine this year.