Key Points and Summary – Before dawn in Warsaw, Russia’s mass drone-and-missile strike on Ukraine spilled into Poland, with at least eight—and possibly more than twenty—drones crossing NATO airspace.
-Poland activated emergency procedures, scrambling F-16s alongside Dutch F-35s, Italian AWACS, tankers, and German Patriot units to intercept successive waves.
An M1 Abrams main battle tank provides security during the Combined Arms Company field exercise at Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria, Sept. 16, 2015. The CAC is a newly formed armor element supporting the Black Sea Rotational Force, which reassures our NATO allies and partners of our commitments and will enhance training exercises and operations with partners in the region. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Justin T. Updegraff/Released)
-Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned this is the closest Poland has come to open conflict since WWII, even as authorities urged calm.
-Debris struck a home in eastern Poland; no injuries were reported. The incident underscores a rising pattern of cross-border risk, probing allied air defenses and elevating escalation dangers across NATO’s eastern flank.
Drones Over Poland: NATO Jets Fire as Warsaw Faces Its Gravest Test
WARSAW, POLAND – A colleague of mine with tours of duty in more than one combat zone had a saying: “Wars are like rain,” he used to say. “If it’s happening in your neighbour’s backyard, then it’s also probably coming your way soon.”
Those thoughts were probably in the mind of the entirety of Poland’s national security apparatus this morning. The spectre of a war spreading entered the frame when, according to the count of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, overnight, Russia and Belarus launched a total of 415 drones and 40 missiles in an attack on Ukraine.
However, at least eight of those drones, according to the Ukrainian leader, did not hit any targets in Ukraine and were “aimed toward Poland.”
The count is still unconfirmed, but somewhere between eight and 23 drones that had originated in Russia and Belarus continued across the Ukrainian border and into the territory of Poland, a NATO alliance member.
NATO allies are now hastily marshalling support for Poland after a coalition of Polish F-16 fighter jets, Dutch F-35s, Italian AWACS surveillance planes, and NATO mid-air refueling aircraft were scrambled. In the operation that followed, they began shooting down Russian drones entering Polish airspace on Tuesday evening. One wave after another of these suicide attack drones kept on coming until Wednesday morning, Polish officials detailed.
Close To an Open Conflict
By early this morning Warsaw time, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had called an emergency session of government and military leaders. The group convened following a meeting of the Presidential office’s Biuro Bezpieczeństwa Narodowego (National Security Bureau or BBN) that had gathered as much information as possible on the Russian strikes at that early hour.
Tusk then told Poland’s parliament, the Sejm, that the country is “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two,” although he added that he had “no reason to believe we’re on the brink of war.”
In response to the number of drones that entered its airspace during this widespread Russian attack, Poland called the incursion “an act of aggression” and became the first member of the NATO alliance to fire shots in the war.
Poland’s military command told media outlets that the Russian drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace during this prolonged Russian attack across its border. By this morning, Poland’s military reported that operations against these violations had finally concluded.
Both airborne and ground-based air defense radars tracked more than 10 objects, and those that could pose a threat were “neutralized,” military command authorities said.
“Searches and efforts to locate the potential crash sites of these objects are ongoing,” read a Polish military statement. Command authorities thanked NATO’s air operations centers and the F-35 fighters of the Dutch air force for the assistance they provided.
A Pattern of Increasing Danger
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, there have been numerous incidents of Russian drones entering the airspace of states bordering Ukraine, including Poland and Romania. Still, so far, the numbers had been small, and those nations and other NATO members had not attempted to bring these unmanned flying objects down.
Officials have cited the physical danger that such actions could cause and a desire to avoid an escalation in tensions between Russia and NATO. Poland’s military and political leaders urged the civilian population to stay at home, calling out the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk, and added: “This is an act of aggression that poses a real threat to the safety of our citizens,” explained the Polish Military Command on social media.
Drones Hit House in Poland
One of the drones struck the home of pensioner Tomasz Wesolowski, who was literally watching the television news reporting on Russian drones flying into Polish airspace at the exact moment when a drone crashed into his house. The drone struck the upper section of his residence at 0630 hours Poland time, destroying the roof, damaging a bedroom, and also scattering debris across his garden.
“I turned on the TV, and all the news was about this massive drone flight, and after a while, I heard a plane flying over… and suddenly something boomed, the light fell from the ceiling in the downstairs living room,” he told the UK-Canada Reuters news service from outside his home in the eastern Polish village of Wyryki-Wola.
“I ran out into the yard, and I saw the whole roof in shreds, everything was destroyed,” he said. Wesolowski’s wife, Alicja, said she ran outside the house and then saw a plane overhead. She wondered whether they were being bombed or if someone would start shooting at her. Neither of the two was hurt, and their full story can be read here.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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