Norway steps in to guard key Polish transport hub
December 3, 2024
The sleepy city of Rzeszów, in Poland, has become a key location in the ongoing Ukraine war, its airport and railway station serving as a hub for the transport of weapons, medical supplies, to Ukraine, and for the injured and refugees fleeing the war.
Various NATO allies have previously taken turns in providing Poland with enhanced air defence ‘cover’, and Norway will assume air defence responsibility for Rzeszów starting in early December 2024, and ending at Easter 2025.
Norway will deploy F-35As and NASAMS air defence systems, and these will operate within the framework of NATO’s integrated air and missile defence system.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Catessa Palone)
Rzeszów-Jasionka is the closest major Polish airport to the border with Ukraine, and is the primary transit stop point for officials travelling to and from Ukraine. The airport and station have also become the main transport point for Western weapons and aid being sent to Ukraine.
Norway’s Minister of Defence Bjørn Arild Gram commented that: “Poland is making a tremendous effort to ensure that both civilian and military supplies reach Ukraine. The airport is also central to the medical evacuation efforts that Norway is responsible for… This way, Norway contributes to ensuring that aid to Ukraine reaches its destination, allowing Ukraine to continue its fight for freedom’.
Gram said that: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated the value of air defence, and the Norwegian contribution in Poland is highly appreciated. We are doing this primarily for Ukraine and Poland, but it also shows that we stand by our commitments within NATO.”
The Defence Minister emphasized that the impact of the mission in Poland on Norway’s security had been thoroughly assessed, and that national preparedness and operations were sufficiently maintained.
There is a significant security threat to Rzeszów’s transport infrastructure, and there have been a number of recent incidents of sabotage that are believed to have been carried out on behalf of Russia.
When 14, mostly Ukrainian foreign nationals were found guilty of espionage and planned sabotage on behalf of Russia in December, the targets they had been observing were the airport and train station in Rzeszów, while the Pole arrested in April on suspicion of helping Russian intelligence with a planned assassination attempt against Volodymyr Zelensky had also been tasked with gathering information on security at Rzeszów airport.
Poland’s interior minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that: “We are facing a foreign state that is conducting hostile and — in military parlance — kinetic action on Polish territory. There has never been anything like this before.” He went on to say that recent acts of sabotage had been ordered by Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that Russia was “likely” to have been the culprit behind the fire that recently destroyed Warsaw’s largest shopping centre.
