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Russia’s drone incursion in Poland demands a U.S. response

If President Donald Trump won’t punish Russia’s latest provocation, Congress must.

By MAX BOOT

Washington Post
September 10, 2025

An accident or an attack?

That is the question being asked after Russian and Belarusian drones breached Polish airspace 19 times between 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. The Russian government denied, preposterously, that some of the drones were even Russian, and the Belarusian regime, which is closely allied with the Kremlin, blamed Ukraine for driving the drones off course. But Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said, “Our assessment is that they did not veer off course but were deliberately targeted.”

Whatever the case, NATO air defenses shot down the drones, which were identified as the Gerbera type used for reconnaissance or as decoys. Some experts believe this was a deliberate Russian provocation, probing Polish air defenses and assessing the speed and efficiency of the NATO response.

The hypothesis that this was more than a mere accident is buttressed by the pattern of Russian military activity in Ukraine since the failed summit in Alaska on Aug. 15 between Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump. That meeting enhanced Putin’s international legitimacy and persuaded Trump to retreat, at least temporarily, from his threats of sanctions. Though Trump claimed that the summit was a step toward peace, Putin seems to have read it as a signal to ramp up his aggression.