NATO shoots down Russian drones......

NATO shoots down Russian drones in Polish airspace, accusing Moscow of being ‘absolutely reckless’

By Brad Lendon, Isaac Yee, Nina Subkhanberdina and Ivana Kottasová

NATO fighter jets shot down multiple Russian drones that violated Polish airspace during an attack on neighboring Ukraine early on Wednesday, as the military alliance denounced Moscow for “absolutely dangerous” behavior that ratcheted up tensions to a new level.

The operation marked the first time that shots were fired by NATO since the start of the war in Ukraine. Polish and Dutch jets intercepted the drones, with assistance from Italian, German and NATO’s multinational forces, officials said.

Addressing the Polish parliament, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that while there was no reason to say that Poland was in a state of war, it was closer to a conflict than any time since World War II. He said the country was facing an “enemy that does not hide its hostile intentions.”

Tusk also announced that Poland has invoked Article 4 of NATO, meaning the alliance’s main political decision-making body will now meet to discuss the situation and its next steps.

Russia’s defense ministry said that it had carried out a strike against Ukraine and that “no targets on the territory of Poland were planned for destruction.”

NATO chief Mark Rutte said, however, that the violation of Poland’s airspace was not an “isolated incident.”

Asked by reporters whether the incursion was deliberate, he said that while a full assessment was ongoing, “whether it was intentionally or not, it is absolutely reckless. It is absolutely dangerous.”

Rutte said the alliance’s response was “very successful” and showed that NATO was able to, and will, defend “every inch” of its territory.

He added that the wider operations involved Polish F-16s and Dutch F-35 jets, an Italian early warning aircraft, German Patriot systems and a NATO refueling aircraft.

‘Unprecedented violation’

Tusk said there were 19 intrusions of his country’s airspace, and that a “large proportion” of the drones entered it from Belarus. He called the incident an “unprecedented violation of (its) airspace” and said it lasted all night – from just before midnight local time on Tuesday until 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski said that the sheer number of drones that entered Polish airspace makes it clear this was a deliberate act by Russia.

“When one or two drones does it, it is possible that it was a technical malfunction. In this case, there were 19 breaches and it simply defies imagination that that could be accidental,” he said.

Speaking to the lawmakers, Tusk said that the one piece of “good news” was that nobody was injured.

Poland’s interior ministry said seven drones and parts of one unidentified missile have been found. The locations where the debris was found span the area of hundreds of miles.

Ministry spokesperson Karolina Gałecka said that one of the drones hit a residential building in the village of Wyryki, in eastern Poland, near the border with both Ukraine and Belarus.

Photographs from the scene geolocated by CNN show extensive damage to a family house there.

Another piece of a drone was discovered near a cemetery in Cześniki in Zamość County, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Wyryki, according to the local prosecutor’s office.

Allies react and a search for downed drones

NATO, the transatlantic defense pact involving the United States, employs the principle that an attack on one is an attack on all.

European faith in the reliability of that alliance has been shaken under US President Donald Trump who, alongside key cabinet members, have called on Europe to lead in its own defense.

Rutte said he has been in touch with the Polish leadership and that NATO itself was “closely consulting” with Poland.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, called the incident “the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began.” Kallas said that the “indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental,” adding that: “Russia’s war is escalating, not ending.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least eight “Shahed” drones had been aimed toward Poland, in what he called “an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe.” His own country endured a Russian attack involving 415 drones and 40 missiles overnight.

Ulf Kristersson – the prime minister of the newest NATO member, Sweden – called the presence of Russian drones over Poland “unacceptable.”

“Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe,” said Gitanas Nauseda, the president of Lithuania, also a NATO member.

The incursion comes as Trump’s attempts to strike a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine have ground to a halt, with Moscow only scaling up its aerial assaults.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “testing the West.”

“Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin’s sense of impunity keeps growing,” Sybiha said in a post on X.

Ned Price, a US State Department spokesperson during the Biden administration, also thought Russia may have sent drones over Poland to test NATO resolve and defenses.

While cautioning it could be the case that the drones flew over Poland by mistake or because of Ukrainian countermeasures, Price told CNN’s Laura Coates their presence, if deliberate, could expose what Russia might see as “weakness.”

US Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, was more direct.

“Repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones are fair warning that… Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations,” Durbin said in a post on X.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Territorial Defense forces had been activated to search for downed drones.

He urged people to “remain calm” and said anyone who found fragments of military equipment should report it to authorities.

Earlier, authorities closed airspace over Warsaw International Airport and other smaller airports “due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security,” according to a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) posted on the US Federal Aviation Administration’s website.

The Warsaw airport reopened Wednesday morning, Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski said in a post on X.

Putin emboldened after China parade

The military activity over Poland comes less than a week after Putin was in China, where he met with leader Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in show of unity between the authoritarian allies.

Since then, Russia has staged its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine since it fully invaded its neighbor more than three years ago.

The recent attacks have largely targeted residential areas around the country and in the capital of Kyiv. On Tuesday, 24 civilians were killed in a Russian strike on the village of Yarova in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said.

Last weekend, Russia deployed more than 800 drones in its largest attack to date, striking a government building in Kyiv for the first time.

The attack hit the Cabinet of Ministers building, which houses the prime minister’s office, as well as some government ministries.

All these attacks have come less than a month after Putin’s summit with Trump in Alaska that ended without a deal to end the war. Any progress made has long since evaporated with Russia’s expanded aerial attacks.

Poland earlier announced it was closing its eastern border with Russian ally Belarus, due to joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises beginning Friday, Reuters reported.

The Zapad 25 large-scale exercises, which will take place in western Russia and Belarus, have raised security concerns not only in Poland but also in the neighboring NATO countries on Lithuania and Latvia, according to Reuters.

“On Friday, Russian-Belarusian maneuvers, very aggressive from a military doctrine perspective, begin in Belarus, very close to the Polish border,” Prime Minister Tusk told a government meeting, Reuters reported.

“Therefore, for national security reasons, we will close the border with Belarus, including railway crossings, in connection with the Zapad maneuvers on Thursday at midnight,” Tusk said.