Key points:
- Russia denies that the drones were its own, and says it has no intentions of stoking a war with NATO. Contrarily, Russia says it is Western Europe worsening relations by suggesting Russia is a threat.
- According to Poland, this is the first time Russian missiles or drones have been shot down in Polish airspace, and this is also the greatest number of Russian missiles or drones to enter Polish airspace.
- Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk has invoked article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, but not article 5. NATO does not view the Russian drones as an attack, but an “intentional incursion”. So this isn’t WW3, yet.
- EU diplomat Kaja Kallas has called on Europeans to “invest in Europe’s defence” in response to how “Russia’s war is escalating, not ending”.
- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky called the drones “an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe” and has called for a “joint response by […] Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, [and] the United States.”
The only time Article 5 got invoked was 9/11
Thank you for that context.
Officially. France got it used unofficially to put down an anticolonial uprising in Algeria. They didn’t want to call it article 5, for optics ig
Not included in the article, but here’s a thread with images of all the drone and missile debris found in Poland, Xcancel
Looks like Russian Gerbera drones, shot down by AIM-120 air to air missiles.
Thank you for these pictures.
How did they get in Poland you think? Mistake? No way Russia would do this on purpose.
People have been saying “there’s no way Russia would do this” since they planned to invade Ukraine, and in the end, Russia has done said thing.
Russia would absolutely do something like this on purpose to probe NATO response times, observe how NATO respond, etc. Low risk, low cost, high reward maneuver for Russia. NATO is not going to go to war with Russia or Belarus over some styrofoam drones launched from Belarus. The use of such drones allows for plausible deniability, Belarus has already said that they shot down some drones that veered off course and informed Poland. Russia gets high value intelligence at a very low cost.
Also just my opinion but i think this is Russia forcing the entire western coalition to show their true colors. Ukraine responds to this by being like “Ok so everyones gonna start WW3 for us now right?” which im sure annoys the other western leaders a bit. And of course the rest of NATO basically says “No lol.” and the desperate Ukrainians get reminded nobody is coming to save them.
I feel like this is trolling towards the schrödingers russia which is both sure to take over the entire EU and also a failed state that will falter within days
But EU is absolutely foaming at the mouth about a future invasion from Russia. This seems like just encouraging that rhetoric.
Those are extremely cheap drones with the cheapest components, so the probability some of them malfunctioned and went off course is significant.
