US President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized the incursion of at least 19 Russian drones into Polish airspace, which were shot down by forces from several European countries under NATO coordination.
“What is this about Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!”, the Republican president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
A White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told AFP that Trump was scheduled to speak with Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday about the raid.
Trump's statement comes after Poland reported that several Russian drones entered its territory over a period of several hours and were shot down with the help of NATO allies, describing the incursion as an act of aggression carried out during a wave of Russian attacks against Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament that 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, from about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday to 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. According to Polish officials, nine impact sites have been found, some hundreds of kilometers from the border.
“What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of minor Russian mistakes or provocations. For the first time, a significant part of the drones came directly from Belarus,”Tusk told parliament.
Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but nothing of this scale had happened in Poland or anywhere else on NATO territory. A spokesperson said it was the first time the alliance had confronted a potential threat in its airspace.
NATO meeting
NATO met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russia’s largest airstrike against Ukraine since the war began. NATO air defenses supported Poland in what spokesman Col. Martin O’Donnell called “the first time NATO aircraft have engaged potential threats in allied airspace.” This included Dutch F-35 jets intercepting drones, according to Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans.
Tusk told parliament that consultations were held under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, a clause that allows countries to call urgent discussions with their allies. The consultations took place at a pre-planned meeting on Wednesday.
“This situation... brings us closer than ever to open conflict since the Second World War,” Tusk told parliament, although “there is no reason today to say that we are in a state of war.”
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament: “There is definitely no reason to suspect that this was a course correction error or anything similar. These drones were very clearly put on this course deliberately.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it did not attack Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that “lost their way” because they were jammed. The Russian ministry said its nighttime strikes targeted Ukraine’s military-industrial complex in the country’s western regions bordering Poland, with no planned targets on Polish territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it an “extremely dangerous precedent for Europe” and called for Russia to “feel the consequences.”
“Moscow is always testing the limits of what is possible, and if it doesn’t find a strong response, it remains at a new level of escalation,” he said. “Not just one Shahed (drone), which could be dismissed as an accident, but at least eight attack drones that were directed in the direction of Poland.”
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: “Russia’s war is escalating, not ending. What (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to do is test us. What happened in Poland is a game changer and should result in stronger sanctions.
Poland, a major supporter of Ukraine, hosts more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees and is a key transit point for Western humanitarian and military aid to the war-torn country.
The incident comes days before Zapad-2025 military exercises scheduled for September 12-16 in Russia and Belarus, leading Tusk to describe the coming days as “critical” for Poland.
