"We are still at work". 50 territorial army soldiers search for "balloon-like" object

An unidentified object that entered Polish airspace from the direction of Belarus was probably an observation balloon, Poland's defence ministry said on Saturday on Twitter.

The spokesman for the Command of the Territorial Defence Forces (WOT) Major Witold Sura told TVN24 on Monday that 50 WOT soldiers had been dispatched to the search area. "Our soldiers are there to carry out tasks issued by the Command of the Territorial Defence Forces," he said.

He added that all information regarding potential location of the object that was to have fallen on the Polish territory were being forwarded to the Operational Cammand of Armed Forces which coordinated the search efforts. "Our soldiers have been dispatched today to the area and they will be searching for the object. We are still at work," the spokesperson added.

The search operation has been resumed in Kaleje, Żuromin County, which is a small village in the northern part of Masovian Voivodeship.

NATO-member Poland is on alert for infractions of its airspace as war rages in neighbouring Ukraine after incidents in November and December in which missiles landed on its territory.

Captain Ewa Złotnicka, press officer of the Armed Forces Operational Command, told TVN24 the object entered Polish airspace on Friday evening.

The ministry said radar contact with it was lost near Rypin, a town in north-central Poland. A Territorial Defence Force spokesman said a search for it was under way.

Russian and Belarusian authorities were not immediately available for comment.

After the deaths in November of two Poles hit by what Warsaw concluded was a misfired Ukrainian air defence missile, and the discovery of the remains of a missile in northern Poland in April, national security is a key issue in Poland ahead of elections later this year.