From June 10 to September 9, 2025, civilian flights below 3 km are prohibited in Poland's eastern border strip. This is another — no longer the first — cycle of three-month restrictions that the military has been regularly requesting from the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PAŻP) since autumn 2024.
Why now and why again
The formal basis is a request from the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces "in connection with the need to ensure national security." But behind this formulation lies a specific event: on September 10, 2024, 19 Russian drones crossed the Polish border. Polish aviation and allies fired three missiles, but destroyed only part of the targets. This is when Poland first decided to actively shoot down unmanned aircraft over its territory — and simultaneously introduced the first cycle of restrictions.
As militarnyi.com reports, in November 2025, PANSA has already extended the restriction zone until March 9, 2026 — meaning the current "June-September" cycle is not the last in this series. Restrictions apply in the EP R129 zone, which depending on the section extends from 26 to 50 km deep into Polish territory.
What is actually prohibited and what is not
Passenger flights at high altitudes are not affected by the restrictions. But for everything flying below FL095 (≈3 km), the rules are as follows:
- At night — complete ban, except for military aircraft and flights authorized by the Air Operations Center (COP-DKP).
- During the day — permitted for manned aircraft with a filed flight plan and working SSR transponder.
- Civil drones — only during the day and without entering the ADIZ zone of Ukraine or Belarus.
In other words, the effective closed zone is nighttime: it was then that Russian Shaheds crossed the border and remained undetected by civilian radars.
A mechanism without a new legal framework
A characteristic detail: the Polish military does not require new laws for these restrictions. As PANSA notes, restrictions are introduced in accordance with the ordinance of the Minister of Infrastructure of January 18, 2019, which allows such measures to be introduced for a period of up to three months at a time. This is why cycles last exactly 91 days — and continue without parliamentary debate.
"Poland, which is a NATO member, is not afraid of Russian drones"
— President of Poland Karol Nawrocki, after the September 2024 incident
However, rhetoric and practice diverge: it is precisely this fear that compels the military to request extension of the regime every quarter.
What this means for logistics supporting Ukraine
On November 16, 2024, a railway line on the route to the Ukrainian border was damaged — presumably as a result of sabotage. Closed airspace over the same border strip means that aerial monitoring and patrols are now concentrated exclusively in military hands — civilian aviation, including journalistic and monitoring drones, is de facto excluded from this zone.
If the number of Polish airspace violations does not decrease by September 2025, Warsaw will have to decide whether three-month cycles are sufficient or whether a permanent regime with a new legal framework is needed.
