Following Russia’s drone incursion into Poland on Tuesday night, Defence Secretary John Healey says he has instructed our armed forces to provide options to bolster Nato’s air defences there. We have heard similar calls from other Nato countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, who have all said they will deploy additional defensive assets. This is exactly the wrong response and plays straight into Russian hands.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said the incident brought Poland closer to military conflict “than at any time since the second world war”, describing it as a “large-scale provocation”. Others, including Healey and a range of defence experts have said Russia was testing Nato’s response. None of that is true. Putin has no need to test our response to drones entering Nato airspace, because he already knows exactly what it will be: nothing.
Neither was this a probe to assess Warsaw’s air defences with a view to launching a much larger scale attack later on. Nor was it a provocation to lure Nato into a retaliatory attack by hitting targets on its territory. A maximum of 19 drones seem to have entered Polish airspace, nothing like sufficient force to precipitate a significant reaction. Nato itself proved that by saying it did not warrant triggering Article 5: an attack on one is an attack on all. Bear in mind that on the same night, 415 drones and 43 missiles were launched at Ukrainian cities. That is what a large-scale provocation looks like, Mr Tusk.
Following Russia’s drone incursion into Poland on Tuesday night, Defence Secretary John Healey says he has instructed our armed forces to provide options to bolster Nato’s air defences there. We have heard similar calls from other Nato countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, who have all said they will deploy additional defensive assets. This is exactly the wrong response and plays straight into Russian hands.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said the incident brought Poland closer to military conflict “than at any time since the second world war”, describing it as a “large-scale provocation”. Others, including Healey and a range of defence experts have said Russia was testing Nato’s response. None of that is true. Putin has no need to test our response to drones entering Nato airspace, because he already knows exactly what it will be: nothing.
Neither was this a probe to assess Warsaw’s air defences with a view to launching a much larger scale attack later on. Nor was it a provocation to lure Nato into a retaliatory attack by hitting targets on its territory. A maximum of 19 drones seem to have entered Polish airspace, nothing like sufficient force to precipitate a significant reaction. Nato itself proved that by saying it did not warrant triggering Article 5: an attack on one is an attack on all. Bear in mind that on the same night, 415 drones and 43 missiles were launched at Ukrainian cities. That is what a large-scale provocation looks like, Mr Tusk.