By CLAUDIA CIOBANU and ILLIA NOVIKOV, Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland said Wednesday that multiple Russian drones entered its territory over the course of several hours and were shot down with help from NATO allies, describing the incursion as an “act of aggression” carried out during a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine.
The Kremlin refused to comment, but its close ally, Belarus, said it tracked some drones that “lost their course” because they were jammed. However, several European leaders said they believe that the incursion amounted to an intentional escalation by Russia of its war on Ukraine.
Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games starting on Friday.
Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but there has been nothing on this scale in Poland or in any other Western nation along the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union. A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance has confronted a potential threat in its airspace.
NATO met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.
“Russia’s war is escalating, not ending,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. “Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.”
The extent of the incursion was still becoming clear: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but that information was still being gathered. Eight crash sites have been found, a government spokesperson said. Dutch fighter jets came to Poland’s aid and intercepted some drones, the Netherlands’ defense minister said.
“This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens,” the Polish military’s operational command said on social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Russia to put an end to “this reckless escalation,” while Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the violation “a test of NATO countries’ defense capabilities.”
Poland says some drones came from Belarus
Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and the last around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday. He said that the 19 violations recorded so far were “not the final data.”
Earlier, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace, but he did not specify an exact number.
“What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus,” Tusk said in parliament.
Belarusian Maj. Gen. Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the General Staff chief and first deputy defense minister, appeared to try to put some distance between his country and the incursion.
In an online statement, he said that as Russia and Ukraine traded drone strikes overnight, Belarusian air defense forces tracked “drones that lost their course” after they were jammed, adding that Belarusian forces warned their Polish and Lithuanian counterparts about “unidentified aircraft” approaching their territory.
“This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty,” Muraveiko said.
Drones were found in seven locations in Poland, according to Karolina Galecka, spokeswoman for Ministry of Interior and Administration. At the eighth site, objects of an unknown origin were found.
Bernard Blaszczuk, mayor of the village of Wyryki in Lublin region, told TVP Info that a house was hit. Much of the roof was ripped off. He said people were inside but nobody was hurt.
On Wednesday morning, the army was keeping guard on the streets of the village as curious locals huddled together with police and firefighters to figure out what happened.
Poland closed part of its airspace for several hours, and Warsaw’s Chopin Airport suspended flights.
NATO members vow support, with Baltic countries rattled
NATO air defenses supported Poland in what spokesman Col. Martin O’Donnell called “the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace.”
Tusk told parliament consultations with allies were taking place under Article 4 of the NATO treaty – a clause that allows countries to call for urgent discussions with their allies. The consultations happened at a pre-planned meeting on Wednesday. They do not automatically lead to any action under Article 5, which is NATO’s collective security guarantee.
Dutch F-35 fighter jets “intercepted drones over Poland,” Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on X. And German Patriot defense systems in Poland were also placed “on alert,” and an Italian airborne early warning plane and an aerial refueler were launched, O’Donnell said.
NATO, he said, “is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace.”
Leaders in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — the NATO members most nervous about Russian aggression given their close proximity — were among the most rattled and expressed deep concerns.
“Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda wrote on X. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that the overnight attacks on Ukraine and violations of Polish airspace were “yet another stark reminder that Russia is not just a threat to Ukraine, but to all of Europe and NATO.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it an “extremely dangerous precedent for Europe” and called for Russia to “feel the consequences.”
“Moscow always tests the limits of what is possible and, if it does not encounter a strong response, remains at a new level of escalation,” he said. “Not just one Shahed (drone), which could be dismissed as an accident, but at least eight attack drones that were aimed in the direction of Poland.”
Objects have entered Polish airspace before
Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.
In August, Poland’s defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation by Russia.
In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish airspace on its way to a target in western Ukraine, and in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.
Russian attacks hit central and western Ukraine
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missiles overnight.
Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.
One person was killed and one injured in Zhytomyr region overnight, regional administration head Vitalii Bunechko wrote on Telegram, while homes and businesses were damaged.
Russian drones injured three people in Ukraine’s western Khmelnytskyi region, its head Serhii Tiurin wrote on Telegram early Wednesday morning. He said a sewing factory was destroyed, a gas station and vehicles were damaged, and windows in several houses were blown out.
In Vinnytsia region, Russian drones damaged “civilian and industrial infrastructure,” according to regional head Natalia Zabolotna. Nearly 30 residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in its morning report on Wednesday that it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.
Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. AP writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
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