Key Points and Summary – Russian drones keep brushing NATO’s doorstep, and one even got shot down over Poland—the first time a NATO country has fired since the full-scale war began.
-Warsaw briefly shut its airspace as F-35s prowled the skies, and Zelenskyy warned that Putin won’t wait to finish Ukraine before opening “another direction.”
Russia’s President Putin Sitting at a Desk. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Against that tension, Trump’s stance has swung toward Kyiv, touting Ukraine’s chance to win back all lost territory and floating more Western weapons—possibly Tomahawks routed via Europe.
-The mood in Europe feels like a storm building: daily drone skirmishes, nervous alliances, and a war that could spill wider if miscalculation meets opportunity.
Beyond Ukraine: What Country will Putin Attack Next?
Since the initial invasion of Ukraine by Russia in early 2022, the fear, among many NATO nations, has been that Russia will expand the attacks beyond Ukraine, into other parts of Europe. And while there has not been a full-scale invasion of any other country, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a bit more aggressive of late when it comes to drones crossing into the airspace of different countries.
On one occasion, on September 10, Poland downed Russian drones in its airspace, making it the first NATO country to fire since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Poland invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty. At the same time, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told his parliament it was “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two,” according to Reuters.
Numerous jets were scrambled that day, including Polish F-16 fighter jets, Dutch F-35s, and Italian AWACS surveillance planes. And while nothing like that has happened since, there have been multiple skirmishes in the weeks since. On Sunday, amid Russia’s latest barrage of drones and missiles directed at Ukraine, Poland temporarily closed its airspace, while “F-35 jets patrolled the skies until the attack ended.”
“Putin Will Not Wait”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that he expects such things to continue, and even that Putin could attack another country.
According to The Guardian, the comments from the Ukrainian leader came after he met with President Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly.
“Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine. He will open up some other direction. Nobody knows where. He wants that,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy also said that the recent drone incursions into NATO airspace are intentional.
“I am not comparing our forces. We are at war and they [Poland] are not,” Zelenskyy said in the comments. And he reiterated that Ukraine will assist other countries with anti-drone training.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in recent comments that Ukraine offers “better equipment to counter Russian drones and a far deeper and more up-to-date experience of war with the Russian army.”
Ukraine: Winning Back the Territory?
Zelenskyy’s comments come at a time when it appears that President Donald Trump’s posture when it comes to Russia and Ukraine has pivoted dramatically towards the pro-Ukraine side.
After he and Zelenskyy met last week, the President, who had previously criticized the Ukrainian President in the Oval Office in February, indicating that the war could not be won, was posting on Truth Social about how Ukraine has a chance to reclaim the territory lost in the war so far.
“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump said in a Truth Social post last week.
The President went on to accuse Russia of fighting “aimlessly,” and to declare the idea of Ukraine winning back all lost territory from the war so far “very much an option.”
Trump went on to lay out a theory that once Russians are paying way more for gasoline and waiting in line, ordinary Russians will see “what is really going on with this War.”
At that point, per the President, “Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that! Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act.”
Trump had stated that the U.S. will “supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them,” and indeed this week, Vice President JD Vance said in a Fox News interview that the U.S. is considering providing Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
More Military
B-1B Lancer: The Bomber The Air Force Needs to Keep Flying
Su-37 ‘Terminator’: The Thrust-Vectoring Super Flanker Fighter That Never Was
Russia or China Would Love to Have the Aircraft Carrier USS Harry S. Truman
NATO’s Big Fear: Putin Drops a Tactical Nuclear Weapon on Ukraine
The U.S. Military’s Big F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter Mistake Cuts Deep
Swamplaw Yankee
October 1, 2025 at 6:04 am
Back when, I dined with the designer of the Tomahawk missile, along with other missiles, as I admired his presidential gifts of genuine artifacts of aboriginal tomahawks. Cute or a deep psychological revelation was my take then. Water or land based Tomahawks, the land launchers are surplus as of today, and the MAGA POTUS elite should be agitating that these old launchers be “donated’ asap to Ukraine. The hell, sell them at a big profit but get them over to Ukraine.
While, that version of Tomahawk has been updated, the cruise etc are all items necessary for reparation of the damage that POTUS Obama caused with his unilateral green light of the re-start of the ancient 1000 year old Genocide of Ukrainians by the orc ruuzzkie ethnic Muscovy.
Trump is so very “WORLD” level history wrong. Is he ignorant? The return of all, that is 100%, illegally stolen Ukrainian land is a MUST. No debate.
Once Trump makes that very one statement in public, the psychology begins. What psychology? The orc ruuzzkie ethnic psychology of the last 1000 years.
For the last 1000 years the democide of Ukrainians is the overriding genetic urge of the orc mongol ruuzzkie muscovite.
If the MAGA POTUS Trump has the inner psychology inside him to state this, then the orc ruuzzkie ethnic mongol knows their end in Ukraine, is nigh.
That is, the butchery in 1932-33 of 20,000,000 Ukrainians, the HOLODOMOR, to get FREE Ukrainian real estate for millions of parasitic ruuzzkie colonists, was a colossal mass murder, innocent blood spilt in vain.
That is, the concept of immediate pre-payment by Putin’s “normal” russkies of $10,000,000 in gold bullion to each and every Ukrainian victim as reparation and compensation must be broached internationally.
That is, their russian ethnic tribes mass gamble to kill off, loot and steal a nation of its people has failed.
That is, they themselves have to make a decision to abandon their in progress burglary of Ukraine and flee the scene as the common mass murderers that they are.
That is, the more crazed of the ethnic parasites might want to burn, destroy and/or kill as they flee Ukraine, but they will have to decide what to steal, take back to their homeland.
That is, the more crazed might want to become extreme, say poison water, blow up nuclear reactors as they do not want to let others have what they once stole so easily with Putin’s facilitative tribal help.
The reality is that A man who self-abdicated the leadership of the WEST must attempt to find inside of himself the moral fibre to state that demand in public: Leave all and every square foot of illegally occupied Ukraine, and asap.
Can MAGA POTUS Trump make that a concrete demand stated in world view? Not some whimpey option thingy blurt, where he, himself, Trump, is scared to face the evil orc ruuzzkie ready to kill and steal.
Maybe, still, MAGA POTUS Trump can evoke moral rectitude within himself and salvage Ukraine from the black pit Obama viciously shoved Ukraine into. -30-
Jim
October 1, 2025 at 12:38 pm
Everybody knows the Poland drone incursion was a false flag out of Ukraine (and so are the other drone sightings) probably with help from MI6, but who knows the exact finger prints of these various schemes.
Zelensky projects his own thinking onto Russia all the time, it’s a classic move for a sociopathic liar to claim their opponent is engaged in what they, themselves, are doing. Right out of the Saul Alinsky playbook, Rules for Radicals.
It obvious, Zelensky wants to draw NATO or individual countries into the war. He knows Kiev can’t win without them, but particularly the United States.
Europe without United States backing is a paper tiger… that’s the real paper tiger in this whole charade. (And, yes, it’s a charade, making it look reasonable to continue the war, when Kiev should have settled long ago, say, at the Istanbul Peace negotiations back in Spring of ’22. How many Ukrainian men would be alive today if that had happened? Think about it.)
So, Zelensky figures, if I can get one country to jump in, then like a pack of lemmings, the rest will likely follow off the cliff, but the big prize, of course, is the United States.
Is that how you want a General European War to start: by having a psychotic leader project his own scheme onto his enemy and then having a bunch of fools (thinking war is good) fall for his false flags… why, because, apparently, they want to be fooled and go to war…
… there’s a screw or two loose in those European leader’s heads if they let their seeming need for the vicarious thrill to power & war takeover their better judgment and reason.
Time to look in the mirror… do you want to go down the path set out for you by Zelensky?
That would be the ultimate stupid move… and just what Zelensky wants.
He wants to treat the Europeans as suckers. He’s a regular B. T. Barnum, that guy!
Will they oblige him?