Poland shot down alleged Russian drones entering its airspace during a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine, Polish authorities announced on Wednesday, 10 September. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had activated Article Four of NATO’s treaty, under which alliance members can demand consultations with their allies. ‘This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two,’ Tusk warned.
Poland reported that 19 objects had entered its airspace during the Russian strike, and that it had downed those posing a threat. Authorities later confirmed the discovery of seven drones and the remains of an unidentified object across the country. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka told a news conference that five of the drones, along with the remains of the unidentified object, were found in various locations across Lublin province, which borders Belarus and Ukraine. The remaining two were discovered deeper inside Poland: one in a field in Mniszków, in Łódź province, about 250 km (155 miles) from the Belarusian border, and another near the city of Elbląg in the north.
Reacting to the news, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán assured Poland of Hungary’s full solidarity, calling the violation ‘unacceptable’. ‘The incident proves that our policy of calling for peace in the Russia–Ukraine war is reasonable and rational,’ Orbán added. Concluding his post on X, the Hungarian PM reaffirmed his support for US President Donald Trump’s peace efforts.
The origins of the drones remain disputed. Ukraine and its Western allies immediately claimed they were Russian, but Russia’s RIA news agency quoted a diplomat calling the accusations ‘groundless’ and insisting Poland had offered no evidence.
The incident comes just days after Poland’s former president Andrzej Duda revealed in an interview how Ukraine had tried to drag Warsaw into war back in 2022 in a remarkably similar case. He referred to the 15 November 2022 strike on the Polish village of Przewodów, which killed two farmers. According to Duda, President Zelenskyy’s insistence that the missile was Russian amounted to pressure on Poland to confirm Moscow’s responsibility—something Duda saw as an attempt to draw his country directly into the conflict. Nearly a year later, Warsaw officially confirmed that the projectile had been fired by Ukraine’s armed forces.
The latest case could very well mirror Przewodów: Ukraine may have launched the drones as part of a false-flag operation to secure more Western support. On the other hand, it could have been a Russian probe, testing both Western reaction and NATO’s potential response.
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