patrick.net

WARSAW—NATO-member warplanes shot down several Russian drones over Poland, the first time the alliance has engaged Russian drones over a member’s territory after what officials contend was a test of its defenses by Moscow.
The incident, which Polish authorities said involved 19 incursions into its airspace, led authorities to close major Polish airports for the first time since the war began.
“We are dealing likely with a provocation on a large scale,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, following an emergency meeting of ministers Wednesday.
Russian warplanes have long tested NATO’s responses by flying near or even into the airspace of alliance members. NATO countries rotate air-policing duties along alliance borders. Those cat-and-mouse encounters, involving traditional crewed aircraft, have become more brazen since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but remain on the alliance’s periphery.
Tuesday night’s drone incursions mark a new level of Russian provocation: The unmanned aerial vehicles reached further west over Poland than at any time previously reported during the war.
Dutch and Polish warplanes were involved in the operation to down the drones—some of which entered via Belarus—developments that Tusk said were unprecedented. Some three to four were shot down, the Polish prime minister added.