Poland will change the procedure governing when its armed forces may open fire on objects that violate the country's airspace, according to a report by LIGA.net.

The move signals a shift in how Warsaw handles unauthorized entries into Polish airspace — an issue that has grown more pressing since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 placed Poland on the eastern flank of NATO's most active air-defense zone.

The report did not specify a timeline for the change or detail the new procedural thresholds for engaging violating aircraft or objects. The current framework requires specific conditions to be met before Polish air-defense units can use force against intruders, and the revised procedure is expected to redefine those conditions.

Poland's airspace has been repeatedly tested since February 2022. In November of that year, a stray missile landed in the village of Przewodów near the Ukrainian border, killing two people, and Russian drones have crossed into Polish territory on multiple occasions during strikes on western Ukraine. Each incident has sharpened the debate in Warsaw over whether the existing rules of engagement allow commanders to respond quickly enough.

The planned change comes as Poland continues one of the largest military modernization programs in Europe, with substantial investment in air-defense systems and combat aircraft. Any new procedure for engaging airspace violators would tie directly into that buildup, determining how those assets can be employed at the moment of an incident rather than during assessment after the fact.

The specific legal and operational steps involved — including which authority would authorize fire and against what categories of objects — remain to be detailed when the Polish government formalizes the change.