More than a dozen Russian drones breached Polish airspace on 10 September, provoking a multi-national response from NATO forces.
“Last night, the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones,” says Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down.”
At least 19 of the Russian uncrewed aircraft were logged in Polish airspace during the incident, according to Warsaw.
The incursion prompted NATO to scramble a range of multi-national assets, including Poland’s own Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, Lockheed F-35A stealth fighters from the Netherlands, an Italian airborne early warning and control aircraft, Airbus Defence & Space A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transports operated by NATO headquarters, and Patriot ground-based air defence batteries from Germany.
The Dutch F-35s had arrived in Poland less than two weeks earlier as part of a regular rotation of NATO fighter aircraft into the alliance’s eastern territory. Among their assigned missions is acting as a quick reaction force to respond to any airspace violations.
Following the incident, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte said the multi-national response had “successfully assured the defence of NATO territory”. He adds that a full review of the incursion in underway.
“What is clear is that the violation last night is not an isolated incident,” Rutte said from NATO headquarters in Brussels on 10 September.
“The Supreme Allied Commander will continue to actively manage our deterrence and defence posture along the entire eastern flank,” he adds. “Allies are resolved to defend every inch of allied territory. We will closely monitor the situation along our eastern flank, our air defences continually at the ready.”
Unverified photos circulating on social media purport to show a house in Poland that was damaged during the air incursion, seemingly from falling debris rather than explosives or fire.
It was not immediately clear what type of uncrewed aircraft were involved on the Russian side of the engagement. Moscow has made heavy use of Iranian-sourced HESA Shahed one-way attack drones throughout the war in Ukraine.
Russia now produces a derivative of the Shahed-136 domestically, under designation Geran-2. The small delta-wing design features a 2.5m (8ft) wingspan and a gross weight around 200kg (440lb), including a 36kg warhead.
The type is powered by a fuel engine and rear-facing propeller, with a substantial range of 1,350nm (2,500km).
Rutte is calling on NATO members to step-up their support for Ukraine in the face of what he describes as an “escalating campaign” from Moscow.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has seemingly shrugged off calls from his American counterpart Donald Trump to begin negotiating a settled end to the war, which is now approaching its fourth year.
A summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska last month apparently yielded no progress toward de-escalation, with Russia launching a direct strike against Ukrainian government offices in Kyiv just days before the incident in Poland.
US officials are now calling for increased economic sanctions against Moscow, with Trump recently announcing massive tariffs on products from India over New Delhi’s purchase of sanctioned Russian energy products.
In Brussels, Rutte is calling on NATO members to make good on commitments to significantly expand defence spending agreed to earlier this year.
At the annual NATO summit in June, member states pledged to raise their defence-related expenditures to the equivalent of 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). The previous target was 2% of each member’s GDP.
“We need to invest more in our defence [and] ramp up defence production so we have what we need to deter and defend,” Rutte says.
“And we need to continue to support Ukraine, whose security is interlinked with our own,” the former Dutch prime minister adds. “Russia is waging a dangerous war of aggression against Ukraine that continually targets civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
