Warsaw wants consultations with bloc members after an alleged violation of its airspace by drones it identified as Russian
Poland has formally invoked Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty following what it described as “an act of aggression” by Russia. The article provides for consultations in case one of the bloc’s members believes its security is threatened.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he made the request after informing lawmakers on the alleged airspace violations. Russia has yet to comment on the accusations.
According to Tusk, the Polish military detected 19 separate violations of its airspace over seven hours, with at least three and possibly four drones downed.
He claimed the aircraft came from Belarus rather than Ukraine, and characterized the incident as a Russian “provocation.”
The Belarusian military earlier reported having given their Polish counterparts early warning that some drones used by Ukrainian and Russian forces for mutual attacks “lost their track as a result of the impact of the parties’ electronic warfare assets.”
“This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty,” said General Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the general staff of Belarus.
The general added that some of the stray aircraft had been intercepted by Belarusian air defenses. He stressed that the exchanges with Poland were part of regular communications about incoming threats, with the Polish side regularly informing officials in Belarus about aircraft detected in Ukrainian airspace.
Multiple officials in the EU expressed solidarity with Poland, pinning the blame on Russia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the incident in her “state of the union” address at the European Parliament on Wednesday, urging continued military assistance for Ukraine.
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Poland claims it shot down ‘Russian drones’
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, called the incident “the most serious European airspace violation by Russia” since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, claiming that “indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.”
Last week, former Polish President Andrzej Duda mentioned a November 2022 incident in which a Ukrainian interceptor missile landed on Polish territory, killing a local resident. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claimed it was an intentional Russian attack and urged Warsaw to call for NATO-level retaliation.
Duda said the Ukrainian leadership was “obviously” trying to get the US-led organization to fight Russia directly, describing such a scenario as a “dream” for Kiev, but unacceptable for Poland.
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