- Polish leaders have rejected President Donald Trump's suggestion that Russia's drone invasion of Poland could have been a “mistake.”
- Nineteen Russian drones invaded Polish airspace resulting in the first shots fired by NATO members during the war in Ukraine.
- The strategy “Eastern Sentry” is to be launched by NATO to strengthen defense along the eastern flank and avert drone threats.
Polish leaders have dismissed the suggestion made by President Donald Trump that the Russian drones that invaded Poland’s airspace on Wednesday could have been a “mistake.”
In a post on X on Friday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote, “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it.”
The post comes after comments made by Trump on Thursday. While responding to a reporter’s question, the U.S. president said, “It could have been a mistake. It could have been a mistake,” according to The Washington Post.
On Wednesday, 19 drones entered Polish airspace, and NATO forces responded to the incursion by shooting down some of them. This was the first time a member of the alliance has fired shots during Russia’s war with Ukraine, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
In response to the incursion, Poland requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the incident. The meeting took place on Friday afternoon, per Reuters.
What other Polish leaders have said after Trump’s ‘mistake’ comment
Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki wrote on X about the drone incursion.
“The Russian provocation was nothing more than an attempt to test our capabilities and responses. It was an attempt to check the mechanism of action within NATO and our ability to react,” Nawrocki said.
“Thanks to the wonderful Polish pilots and our allies, Poland, which is in NATO, will neither fear nor be frightened by Russian drones,” he added.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also posted on X in response to Trump’s comments.
“No, that wasn’t a mistake,” he wrote.
Sikorski also shared a video message saying: “On the night that 19 Russian drones crossed into Poland, 400 (drones) plus 40 missiles crossed into Ukraine. These were not mistakes.”
During an interview with the Polsat News television network, Poland’s Deputy Minister of Defense Cezary Tomczyk also rejected the idea that the drone incursion was accidental.
“I think this is a message that should reach President Trump today: there’s no question of a mistake — this was a deliberate Russian attack,” Tomczyk said, according to CBS News.
What Trump said about Russia on Friday
A day after saying the incursion could have been a mistake, Trump did an interview on “Fox & Friends” during which he expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S. president has at times been more willing to negotiate with Russia than European leaders have been, per The Washington Post.
“It’s sort of running out and running out fast,” Trump said in the interview, echoing a sentiment he has had for weeks. “We’re going to have to come down very, very strong.”
Trump also briefly addressed Putin’s role in the drone incursion during the interview.
“I’m not going to defend anybody ... but he shouldn’t be close to Poland anyway,” he said, per The Washington Post.
What we know about the drone incursion over Poland
According to CBS News, Polish authorities reported recovering parts of 17 Russian-made drones. All the drones fell without causing injuries or major damage in the eastern part of the country.
Top political and military leaders within NATO said it is not clear whether the incursion was deliberate, per CBS News. They did say the alliance would implement a new initiative titled Eastern Sentry.
Eastern Sentry is aimed at bolstering defenses along the eastern flank and is meant to be a warning to Moscow. The Eastern Sentry program will be modeled after an existing Baltic Sentry program, “which added an array of new weapons, surveillance efforts and other assets to defend the Baltic states, and that the new initiative would be designed to defend against drones and other threats,” per The Washington Post.
During a news conference on Friday afternoon, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the Russian breach was “dangerous and unacceptable,” no matter the intent.
Rutte also spoke about the fact that NATO has not concluded whether the drones were deliberately sent into Polish airspace.
“Obviously, day by day, we get more insights,” he said, per The Washington Post. “I won’t share them with you. The truth is that at this moment, we are still assessing.”