Poland called an emergency NATO council meeting after having downed at least four Russian drones which entered its airspace, posing the most dangerous test of the alliance's resolve in decades.
By convening this meeting, the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tuskwho said he was in “permanent contact” with the NATO Secretary General Marc Ruttebrought the alliance together to discuss Article 5 – the obligation to defend a member subject to an armed attack.
Tusk invoked NATO's Article 4, triggering discussions in which a decision will be made on how NATO will respond as an international body, after it emerged that Russian drones had been shot down deep in Polish territory, far from Ukraine.
He said Poland was closer to war than at any time since World War II and its government described drones as “an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the security of our civilians.”
This decision will allow further testing Donald TrumpWestern loyalty to the West's most important strategic alliance. He spent the last seven months of his term supporting Russia against U.S. allies and himself threatened to invade or annex NATO members Canada and Denmark.
His reluctance to support NATO members in Europe and Canada in favor of Ukraine will be tested by the Article 4 talks. A decision is unlikely to involve military action. But demands for increased support for Ukraine, particularly from the United States, as it is Europe's front line against the Kremlin, are inevitable.
Defense Secretary John Healey said: “We tell President Putin that your aggression only serves to strengthen unity among our NATO nations. Your aggression only serves to strengthen our resolve to stand with Ukraine. And your aggression reminds us that a secure Europe needs a strong Ukraine. And that Europe's security begins in Ukraine.”
Many Russian drones have been shot down by Polish planes that have taken off, in a foretaste of what many in Europe fear: what is to come from Russia.
Vladimir Putin often said he wanted to come back Eastern Europe when it was ruled or dominated by the Soviet Union. It threatened the Baltic States, and in particular Poland.
As a result, Poland is growing its military at breakneck speed by spending massively on armor, aircraft, and infantry fighting vehicles.
The incursion into Polish airspace could be an accident, as the drones' deep penetration could be explained by a failure of their guidance systems.
But this is an accident that Russia is clearly willing to risk, given the level of impunity its actions enjoy.
Putin received the red carpet on American soil in Alaska, even though the International Criminal Court issued an international arrest warrant for him for crimes against humanity committed in Alaska. Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on X (Twitter) that “the more he (Putin) faces no response force, the more aggressive he becomes.”
Republican US Congressman Joe Wilson said the penetration of Polish airspace, which he called an attack, was an “act of war”.
Trump has refused to directly supply weapons to Ukraine and has threatened to cut off the flow of intelligence to kyiv since taking office. However, he exerted very little pressure on the Kremlin.
Lately, while Putin has resisted his efforts to initiate a ceasefire process in Ukraine, Trump has repeatedly threatened economic sanctions against Russian trading partners. But he never suggested that America would return to the level of military assistance provided by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
“Putin is no longer content with losing in Ukraine by bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve on NATO territory,” Wilson said on X.
Trump will be called upon to join NATO in condemning Russia's aerial penetration of Poland and even issue warnings to back down or face violent consequences.
This does not sit easily with the US president and his long history of friendships in Moscow, which trump the US alliance that has been the bedrock of Western security architecture for decades.
