Polish troops have recovered a suspected Russian military drone from the Baltic Sea near the coastal village of Rusinowo, Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Monday.
The unmanned aircraft was located and retrieved from the water close to a beach near Jarosławiec in West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Preliminary examination indicates that it is a military drone of Russian origin, according to the defence minister.
“Initial inspection indicates that it is a military unmanned aerial vehicle originating from Russia,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said in a statement on X.
He added that the relevant services were securing both the location and the recovered equipment while further examinations were carried out.
Polish military spokesman Col Jacek Goryszewski subsequently told Polsat News that the aircraft was most likely a Gerbera-type drone. That identification remains preliminary and authorities have not yet disclosed where the aircraft was launched, when it entered the Baltic or how it came to be in Polish coastal waters.
Gerbera drones are relatively inexpensive unmanned aircraft of Russian manufacture that have been used during the war in Ukraine, including in roles intended to complicate Ukrainian air-defence operations.
The circumstances surrounding the drone’s appearance off the Polish coast therefore remain an important part of the investigation. Officials have so far not said whether they believe it crossed Polish airspace before entering the sea, whether it travelled over the Baltic from another direction, or how long it had been in the water.
The Military Gendarmerie and other services are involved in examining the recovered aircraft and determining whether it is safe to handle.
The find comes as Poland remains on heightened alert over Russian military activity in the region, although officials have not established a connection between the Baltic incident and Russian attacks in western Ukraine over the weekend.
Russian drones struck targets close to Ukraine’s border with Poland on Sunday, including railway infrastructure near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk crossing. A passenger train was hit near Yahodyn shortly after a separate train carrying foreign politicians and security figures had travelled through the area.
Another Russian strike hit close to the border crossing itself, temporarily disrupting its operation.
Those attacks prompted renewed warnings from Warsaw about the possibility of Russian operations increasingly affecting infrastructure close to NATO territory.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after the weekend strikes that Poland would maintain an increased level of readiness and continue coordinating its response with allies.
The Polish armed forces have repeatedly scrambled aircraft and placed air-defence systems on higher readiness during large Russian missile and drone attacks on western Ukraine, particularly when weapons have approached the Polish border.
Monday’s discovery on the Baltic coast is geographically separate from those attacks and there is currently no evidence publicly linking the recovered drone with the strikes near the Ukrainian border.
It is also not the first time that the war in Ukraine and wider Russian military activity have resulted in drones or missile debris being investigated on NATO territory. Poland and other countries on the alliance’s eastern flank have strengthened surveillance and air-defence arrangements as unmanned aircraft have become an increasingly prominent feature of the conflict.
Authorities are expected to examine the drone’s components and identifying markings in an attempt to establish its type, origin and possible flight path.
Until that work is completed, the defence ministry’s assessment that the aircraft is Russian remains based on the initial inspection.
