Russia claimed on Monday that NATO is at war with Moscow despite the trans-Atlantic alliance’s position that recent flare-ups over the Ukrainian conflict have not escalated to that level.

“NATO is at war with Russia. This is obvious, and it does not require any additional evidence,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters.

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“NATO is de facto engaged in this war,” both “indirectly” and “directly” with its aid to Ukraine, he added. 

Poland and Romania, two NATO countries that border Ukraine, reported that within the past five days, Russian drones have breached their airspace, on Wednesday in Poland and Saturday in Romania, as fears mount that Moscow’s war against Kyiv risks expanding into a global conflict. NATO, a military alliance led by the United States that is composed of 32 countries, has denounced Putin’s drone incursions as a concerning escalation but has refrained from calling the incidents an act of war. President Donald Trump continues efforts to bring himself, Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky together to de-escalate the situation and end the Ukraine war.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last week he has “no reason to claim we’re on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and it’s incomparably more dangerous than before.”

While Poland has refused to say it is at war with Russia, Tusk has contradicted Trump’s suggestion that the drone intrusion might have been a “mistake,” saying Moscow’s breach of Polish airspace was intentional and brought his country closer to military conflict “than at any time since the Second World War.” Meanwhile, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the drone incidents were Russia’s attempt to “test us without starting a war.” 

After the drone incursions on Sept. 10, when Warsaw said at least 19 drones penetrated Polish airspace, three of which were destroyed by Polish and Dutch fighters, Tusk closed his country’s border and airspace with Belarus, an ally of Russia. He also deployed about 40,000 troops to the country’s border with Belarus. The moves came as Sikorski said the drones were not loaded with explosives, telling the Guardian they were “all duds, which suggests to me that Russia tried to test us without starting a war.” 

Poland also called for the U.S.-led alliance to consider a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Kremlin official Dmitry Medvedev said the move would allow NATO allies to shoot down Russian drones and argued in a post to Telegram that such a decision would mean a “NATO war with Russia.” NATO has refrained from establishing a no-fly zone due to fears that a provocative action could trigger conflict between nuclear nations. 

Moscow has framed Poland’s accusation that the drone incursions were deliberate as a “provocation or misunderstanding,” alleging they are premature conclusions suggesting Russia “wants to destabilize the situation in Poland.”

After Russia’s defense ministry downplayed the drone incursions last week, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s envoy to international organizations in Vienna, said on Telegram on Sunday, “The Russian Ministry of Defense has offered consultations, but the Polish Ministry of Defense is not ready,” adding there had been “no plans” to target facilities on Polish soil.

“It looks like a provocation or a misunderstanding that the Polish side does not want to clarify,” the envoy continued. 

Belarus, which is between Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, has also framed the drone incursions into Poland as an accident, saying that the drones had veered off course because their electronic navigation systems jammed. 

The arguments have failed to convince NATO. 

On Friday, the alliance launched “Eastern Sentry” to bolster its military forces on Russia’s border. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance is weighing the intent behind Moscow’s incursions into NATO airspace in Poland, but he called the actions “reckless and unacceptable,” whether intentional or not.

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The “Eastern Sentry” initiative will “make clear that, as a defensive alliance, we are always ready to defend,” Rutte said. 

The U.S., which leads NATO, has said much of the same. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to say on Saturday that Moscow deliberately launched the drones at Poland in a targeted attack. 

“We think it’s an unacceptable and unfortunate and dangerous development. … No doubt about it: The drones were intentionally launched. The question is whether the drones were targeted to go into Poland specifically,” he said. “I think we’d like to have all the facts and consult with our allies before we make specific determinations.”