Russian drone found on Polish beach carried live warhead, prosecutors confirm

A Russian Gerbera-2 drone recovered from the Baltic Sea near the Polish resort town of Jarosławiec was armed with a live high-explosive fragmentation warhead, Polish military prosecutors confirmed on Wednesday, September 16, as Poland scrambled fighter jets and shut down two airports in response to fresh Russian drone strikes on western Ukraine.

Armed Drone Detonated on the Beach

Col. Bartosz Okoniewski, deputy district prosecutor for military affairs at the District Prosecutor's Office in Poznań, told the Polish Press Agency that the drone, found on Monday near the village of Rusinowo, "contained a fragmentation-high-explosive warhead together with a fuze." Military sappers separated the warhead from the airframe and detonated it in a controlled explosion on the beach on Tuesday evening for safety reasons. The airframe was then moved to a military facility for detailed inspection, where it was preliminarily identified as a Gerbera-2 — a cheap, plywood-and-foam drone fielded by Russia primarily as a decoy and reconnaissance platform, though armed variants also exist.united24media+3

According to Lt. Col. Jacek Goryszewski, spokesperson for the Operational Command, the most likely explanation is that the drone drifted from international waters into Polish territorial waters. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into an event endangering the life or health of many people and are also examining whether the drone crossed the Polish border without authorization.politico+2

Fighter Jets Scrambled, Airports Closed

The warhead confirmation came as Poland activated its military aviation and ground-based air defense systems on the morning of September 16 in response to Russian drone activity over western Ukraine. Operations at the Rzeszów and Lublin airports were temporarily suspended, and air raid alerts were issued across several districts in the Podkarpackie and Lubelskie provinces.charter97+2

Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said the drone found at Rusinowo may have been the same aircraft that flew over Lithuania on September 13, where authorities tracked it and attempted to neutralize it before it crossed into Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and likely operated over the Baltic Sea. Poland and Lithuania will investigate the incident jointly, he said.polskieradio+1

Escalating Incidents Across the Baltic

The discovery is part of a pattern of drone incursions rattling NATO's eastern flank. On the night of September 15, Italian Eurofighter Typhoons operating under NATO command shot down a drone over Lithuania — the first such engagement in the Baltic Air Policing mission's history. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said Wednesday that the downed aircraft was also a Gerbera drone, "most likely not a conscious action against Lithuania" but probably targeted at Ukraine and knocked off course by electronic warfare.reuters+1

Poland's government has warned that Russia's escalation is testing the boundaries of the alliance. "We do not know where Russia believes the limits of the escalation spiral lie," Kosiniak-Kamysz said. "But we do know that the Russians are prepared to go even further."dw