Netherlands sending 300 troops, Patriot missile systems to Poland

Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans has said his country is sending 300 troops and Patriot air defence missile systems to Poland to “defend NATO territory, protect supply to Ukraine, and deter Russian aggression”.

The Netherlands’ announcement on Wednesday came as Polish officials said that an object that fell in a cornfield in Poland’s east on Tuesday night may have been a Russian version of the Shahed drone.

The explosion from the drone broke windows in several houses in the village of Osiny, near Poland’s border with Ukraine, but no injuries were reported, according to an official cited by Poland’s state news agency PAP.

Brekelmans told Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Wednesday that the military support to Poland came alongside other countries providing similar assistance to the NATO-member country, which borders Ukraine.

Brekelmans emphasised that the Patriot systems would be operating in Poland, and the accompanying 300 troops did not mean the Netherlands was putting troops on the ground in Ukraine.

Germany deployed five Eurofighter combat aircraft to Poland earlier this month, according to a German air force spokesman cited by Germany’s DPA news agency. The Kyiv Independent news outlet reported the fighter jets were deployed ahead of joint Russian-Belarusian military drills.

Germany also sent five Eurofighter jets and an estimated 270 soldiers to Romania, DPA reported on Wednesday.

Two of the Eurofighter jets in Romania were mobilised for the first time on Tuesday night, in response to Russian air strikes near Ukraine’s border with Romania, DPA said.

The jets, which took off from a Romanian military airbase, returned without incident, DPA added.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz accused Russia of “provocation”, noting the drone incident within Poland’s borders on Tuesday came “at a special moment, when there are ongoing discussions about peace” in Ukraine, Polskie Radio reported.

Several European leaders accompanied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House on Monday, where one of the main topics of discussion was European countries providing post-war security guarantees to Ukraine as part of discussions around ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Wednesday that attempting to implement security issues relating to Ukraine without Moscow’s involvement was a “road to nowhere”.

“We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work,” Lavrov said.