WW3 WATCH

Putin Drones Shot Down Over NATO Nation in Shock Escalation

It’s the first time the military alliance has directly confronted such a threat in its airspace since the war in Ukraine began.

Poland shot down a barrage of drones violating its airspace with the support of NATO allies overnight in the first known shots fired by the military alliance since Vladimir Putin launched his war in Ukraine.

“Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on X. “Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down.” Tusk later told his parliament that the incident was “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two.”

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It’s not clear how many drones were shot down, but Tusk said 19 violations of Polish airspace were recorded over seven hours during a Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine. He called the incident a “large-scale provocation” but said he does not have “reason to believe we’re on the brink of war.”

NATO is not currently treating the matter as an intentional attack, but it it does consider the incursion to be delieberate, a source told Reuters. The source said Dutch F-35 jets and Italian surveillance and refueling aircraft operated by NATO joined Polish F-16s in responding to the threat.

“The fact that these drones, which posed a security threat, were shot down changes the political situation. Therefore, allied consultations took the form of a formal request to activate Article 4 of the Nato Treaty,” Tusk told MPs on Wednesday, referring to the alliance’s clause that lets nations seek urgent consultations with allies.

The incident comes just a week after Donald Trump met with Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the White House. It also comes after Putin met with China’s Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Beijing for a massive show of military force, prompting speculation that this was a further attempt by the Kremlin to provoke the West and test its defenses.

Russia’s neighbor and ally, Belarus, claimed without evidence that the incursions had been an accident. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, refused to directly comment on the drones being shot down.

“The leadership of the EU and NATO accuse Russia of provocations on a daily basis,” he said. “Most of the time, without even trying to present at least some kind of argument.”

Ukrainian President Zelensky, by contrast, called the incident a deliberate provocation by Russia. “Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident, Zelensky wrote on X. “There have been previous incidents of individual Russian drones crossing the border and traveling a short distance into neighboring countries. But this time, we are recording a much larger scale and deliberate targeting.”

He added: “It is clear that Russian aggression poses a danger to every independent nation in our region, and therefore only joint and coordinated action can guarantee reliable security.”

GOP Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina said on X that the incursion was “an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putin’s continued unprovoked aggression against free and productive nations.”

NATO Secretary Mark Rutte said a “full assessment” of the situation was currently ongoing, and praised the Polish military for their swift and efficient response.

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“To Putin, my message is clear: stop the war in Ukraine, stop escalating the war, which he is now basically mounting on innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure, and stop violating allied airspace,” Rutte said on Wednesday. “Know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant, and that we will defend every inch of Nato territory.”

Other European leaders have also condemned the attack, with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling the incursion an “egregious and unprecedented” violation of NATO airspace, and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala claiming it is “hard to believe” last night’s attack was a coincidence.

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