The operation will run parallel with the ‘Safe Podlasie’ initiative involving the deployment of 17,000 troops to the Polish-Belarusian border, where a migratory crisis has been ongoing since 2021. Warsaw attributes the crisis to a “hybrid war” policy by the Alexander Lukashenko regime.

Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said during an inauguration ceremony for Safe Podlasie on Wednesday that Eastern Aurora was “a matter of the security of Polish airspace.”

Poland’s aerial integrity has been breached by Russian missiles and Belarusian helicopters since the Ukraine war started in 2022.

In November of that year, two Poles were killed by a rocket strike in the south of the country, which transpired to have been a stray Ukrainian air-defense missile.

The Polish armed forces said in a statement on their website that the Eastern Aurora operation would be conducted in the east and northeast of the country.

“In the face of unpredictable Russian actions, strengthening air defense is a priority,” the statement said.

NATO involvement

The operational commander of Poland’s armed forces, General Maciej Klisz, who was also present at Wednesday’s ceremony, said that Eastern Aurora was about more than just coordinating and consolidating Poland’s national forces as it also involved “issues related to an operation being conducted by allies and an operation being carried out by the North Atlantic Alliance on the eastern flank of NATO.”

“Hence allied forces, including American and British, are involved in strengthening the Polish air-defense system within the Eastern Aurora operation,” Gen. Klisz said, adding that Italian aircraft were also expected to take part.

In addition to working with NATO allies, Eastern Aurora will involve continuous airspace monitoring and responses to any violations detected, and enhanced information exchange with Poland’s allies and neighbors, as well as training, the armed forces’ website said.