Kosiniak-Kamysz announced the launch during a ceremony for newly promoted generals on Friday.
He said the operation is a direct response to increased Russian military activity near NATO borders.
"These provocations by the Russian Federation affect not only Poland, but all our allies in the Baltic region,” the Polish defence minister told reporters.
The new operation began earlier last week and involves the deployment of additional aircraft and helicopters to northern Poland to reinforce air patrols.
According to unofficial reports cited by Polish state news agency PAP, military helicopters were being relocated from other regions to bases near the Baltic Sea and Poland’s border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.
Gen. Karol Dymanowski, First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, who was promoted on Friday to three-star general, said the operation is intended to strengthen air defence, shorten response times, and enhance surveillance of Polish airspace in cooperation with allied forces.
The move follows several recent incidents involving Russian aircraft flying near or into Polish airspace in violation of international norms.
Polish military officials have confirmed that a Russian helicopter entered Polish airspace over the Baltic last month, a breach that triggered an official response from Poland’s Operational Command.
Dymanowski said that such actions are not isolated. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there have been multiple incidents involving stray missiles and other airspace violations along Poland’s eastern border.
The new Polish air patrol mission joins a wider NATO effort to secure the Baltic region.
The Baltic Sentry naval operation is already underway to protect undersea infrastructure and deter sabotage, with the involvement of several NATO navies.
Poland is also conducting its own naval mission, dubbed Operation Gulf, to secure critical infrastructure in its exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea.
NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission continues to safeguard the airspace of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which do not have their own combat aircraft.
NATO allies rotate deployments to the region to maintain constant readiness.
Currently, the Polish air base in Malbork hosts not only Polish MiG-29 fighter jets, but also British Eurofighters and Swedish Gripen aircraft, which conduct patrols along the border with Kaliningrad and respond to aerial incidents.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP