There are several lessons Europe and the US should take away from Russia’s unprecedented decision to send drones into Poland as part of another Kremlin attack on Ukraine, Marc Champion writes in Bloomberg Opinion. One is that nobody should ever again dismiss the idea that Russia—struggling so mightily in Ukraine—would ever take on a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member. It just did, Champion writes. Nineteen drones entered Polish airspace, according to Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, enough to make clear it was deliberate and for Poland to invoke NATO’s Article 4, calling on allies to consult when a member is under threat. European leaders told the Associated Press they believe the incursion was an intentional expansion of Russia’s war on Ukraine rather than being a mistake. “Russia’s war is escalating, not ending,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the AP. “What Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game-changer.” Champion says the overnight incursion over one of NATO’s best-armed member states also shows the corrosive effect of Europe’s military incapacity and America’s lack of political will. The combination has allowed Russia to seize the initiative in Ukraine this year. This drone maneuver, Champion writes, was just a warning shot. —David E. Rovella |