Several European leaders, including those of Poland, have expressed outrage at the incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace overnight on Wednesday.
Polish F-16s and Dutch F-35s, Italian airborne early warning aircraft, and a refueler from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Multinational Mult-Role Tanker Transport aircraft fleet responded to the threat, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in brief remarks on Wednesday. German Patriot air defense systems in Poland were also put on alert.
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“Last night, numerous drones from Russia violated Polish airspace. Our air defenses were activated and successfully ensured the defense of NATO territory, as they are designed to do,” Rutte said. “The North Atlantic Council met this morning and discussed the situation in light of Poland’s request for consultations under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty. Allies expressed solidarity with Poland and denounced Russia’s reckless behavior.”
Poland invoked Article 4 of the NATO charter following the incident, which calls for a quick meeting of the North Atlantic Council, which has already occurred.
“A full assessment is ongoing,” Rutte continued, adding, “whether it was intentional or not, it is absolutely reckless, it is absolutely dangerous.”
This incident marked the first time in its history that NATO planes have engaged potential threats in allied airspace, according to Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe spokesman.
“There is no reason to claim that we are in a state of war… but the situation is significantly more dangerous than all previous ones,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, adding that the chance of a large military conflict is “closer than at any time since the Second World War.”
Tusk told the Polish parliament that there were 19 airspace violations.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said the military carried out “a massive strike with long-range, land-based, sea-based, and air-based high precision weapons, as well as with attack drones against the Ukrainian defense industry enterprises,” adding that there were “no intentions to engage any targets” in Polish territory.
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker said the United States “stand[s] by our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
President Donald Trump has not yet responded to this overnight incident, though he has recently expressed his displeasure with Russian forces’ continued attacks targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, far from the front lines of the war.
Trump said last weekend, after a massive Russian aerial assault, that he was ready to move forward to the “second phase” of sanctions against Russia.
The Trump administration has sought to end the war diplomatically since Trump’s inauguration, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has continued to drag out those efforts. Russian leaders have made overwhelming demands of Ukraine to end the war, including sacrificing territory Russia doesn’t currently occupy but wants, putting limits on Ukraine’s military size and scale, and preventing Ukraine from ever entering the NATO alliance.
Trump and Putin met in mid-August, nearly a month ago, and Trump came out of that meeting with the goal of seeing Putin meet directly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, either with or without him. But the Kremlin has dragged its feet on such a meeting.
NATO’s Article 5 states that an attack on one NATO member is viewed as an attack on all of them. The only time in the alliance’s history that it has been invoked was in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S.
Trump, dating back to his first term, has expressed frustration with NATO allies for what he described as their reliance on the U.S. His administration pushed the alliance to increase its minimum defense spending from 2% of GDP to 5%, though many countries will likely not meet the goal for several years.
His perception of the U.S. being taken advantage of by Europe has been a driving force behind his administration’s plan for how to arm Ukraine. Instead of giving them weapons, the Trump administration is now selling weapons to NATO countries, which then provide them to Ukraine.
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The president has also mused that the U.S. may not defend a country that is not meeting its defense spending requirements. Putin could be putting those comments to the test with this incursion into Poland, trying to see what the NATO and U.S. response would be.
“Last night showed that we are able to defend every inch of NATO territory, including, of course, its airspace,” Rutte said, while Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said, “NATO responded quickly and decisively to the situation, demonstrating our capability and resolve to defend Allied territory.”