Since January 2025, the German Luftwaffe has been protecting the Polish airspace over a logistical hub that is essential for the support of Ukraine.
To this end, two MIM-104 Patriot fire units together with around 200 German soldiers have been deployed to Rzeszów. They are always on alert and highly concentrated, but the nights are quiet.
Less than 100 kilometres away, the Bundeswehr soldiers, mostly members of the 1 Surface-to-Air Missile Wing, would be living in an entirely different reality: the ongoing terror in western Ukraine. Any mistake could mean the death of countless people.
According to the German Minister of Defence’s announcement, the deployment was expected to last six months. It can therefore be concluded that the plan was to end the mission in July or August and return the German troops to Germany.
However, this will not happen for the time being! As the Deputy Commander of NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), Major General Maik Keller, announced to Nachgefragt today, the German Luftwaffe will continue to protect the airspace above the strategically important logistical hub until around the end of the year.
The Bundeswehr soldiers will therefore be stationed in eastern Poland for another approximately four months before they are replaced by soldiers from another country and can return home.
Major General Keller did not give a reason for the extension of the mission in his interview with Nachgefragt.
However, only a few days ago, BILD reported that the German Luftwaffe had recently deployed five Eurofighter Typhoons to Poland along with around 150 soldiers in order to act as a rapid response force to potential airspace violations. As reported by Merkur, the Polish government explicitly requested the deployment of the Eurofighters.
It is therefore quite possible that the Polish government itself requested the extension of the Bundeswehr’s Patriot deployment and that the German government agreed to it despite the transfer of two further Patriot fire units from Bundeswehr stocks to Ukraine.
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