Poland yesterday gathered its NATO allies for urgent talks after Russian drones flew into Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, warning that the situation was inching closer to “open conflict.”
Poland’s airspace was violated 19 times, Tusk said, and at least three drones were shot down after Warsaw and its allies scrambled jets — but authorities said nobody was harmed.
Footage posted by local media showed firefighters and police in the village of Wyryki in eastern Poland inspecting a house with its roof blown open and debris littered nearby following an impact from a drone.
Photo: Reuters
Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members including Poland several times during Russia’s three-and-a-half-year war, but a NATO country has never attempted to shoot them down.
Tusk said he had invoked NATO’s Article 4 under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its “territorial integrity, political independence or security” are at risk — only the eighth time the measure has ever been used.
“This situation ... brings us closer than ever to open conflict since World War II,” Tusk told parliament, but added there was “no reason today to claim that we are in a state of war.”
The incident came as Russia unleashed a barrage of strikes across Ukraine including in the western city of Lviv, less than two hours’ drive from the Polish border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the airspace violation was a “dangerous precedent” for Europe and “no accident,” calling for a strong response from Kyiv’s Western allies.
The Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration said a house and a car had been damaged overnight, adding that seven drones and debris from an unknown projectile had so far been located.
The North Atlantic Council, NATO’s main political decisionmaking body, changed the format of its weekly meeting yesterday to hold it under Article 4 of the treaty.
A cornerstone of the Western military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte hailed his organization’s “very successful reaction,” telling journalists the alliance’s air defense had done its job.
He criticzed Moscow’s “reckless behavior” and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt a war that he said was being waged on civilians.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denied targeting Poland, saying it was ready to talk with Warsaw.
“There were no intentions to engage any targets on the territory of Poland,” the ministry said in a statement in English, without confirming or denying that its drones had entered Polish airspace.
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