MFA summons Russian ambassador over fighter jet incident

The near-miss incident put NATO's air policing units in a higher state of readiness and worsened already-hostile relations between Russia and Poland, which has been a strong supporter of Ukraine as it battles a Russian invasion.

The incident on May 5 occurred when a Polish border guard aircraft, on patrol for the European Union's border agency Frontex, narrowly avoided a collision with a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea, Romania and Poland have said.

"We strongly condemn the provocative and aggressive behaviour of the Russian side, which is a serious international incident," ministry spokesperson Łukasz Jasina wrote on Twitter.

The Russian embassy in Warsaw was not immediately available for comment.

Dozens of Euromaidan Ukrainian activists based in Warsaw protested in front of the city's Soviet cemetery on Tuesday (May 9), and barred entrance to Russia's ambassador who came to lay a flower wreath to mark the day.

The protesters staged an installation at the entrance of the cemetery, featuring replicas of shelled buildings and crosses, imitating tombstones, with the names of children who died under Russian fire.

"We have set up our art installation here, which depicts the effects of Russian crimes in Ukraine. As a result, when the Russian ambassador to Poland lays flowers at the monument, he will have to walk through the symbolic streets of the destroyed Mariupol, passing by the bombed houses of Bucha, Irpen, and Kherson," said Euromaidan activist, Viktoria Pogrebniak, at a rally in front of the cemetery.

Russia's ambassador, Sergei Andreyev, chose not to walk through the installation and laid flowers on the ground before leaving.

Russia celebrates on May 9, the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.