Nato allies responding to Russian drone incursion seriously – snap analysis / Poland got 'proposals for concrete support for air defence,' Tusk says after calls with leaders

 

From 2h ago

15.55 BST

Nato allies responding to Russian drone incursion seriously – snap analysis

Dan Sabbagh

Defence and security editor

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/sep/10/poland-pm-condemns-repeated-violation-of-airspace-amid-russian-attack-on-ukraine-follow-live?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-68c1ac1a8f08d80fd0f118de#block-68c1ac1a8f08d80fd0f118de

 

UK’s John Healey may have presided over an unexpectedly slimmed down meeting of E5 defence ministers in Woolwich today, with Poland’s Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz forced to fly back to Warsaw overnight and France’s Sébastien Lecornu promoted to prime minister.

 

But Healey demonstrated that Nato allies are responding to the Russian drone incursion seriously with the promise that UK was looking at “options to bolster Polish air defences”.

 

Though he wouldn’t quite say that Russia had deliberately targeted Poland, the criticism was strong: “They were dangerous, they were reckless, they breached sovereign Polish and Nato airspace”.

 

Last night’s response, involving Dutch F-35s scrambling to help their Polish counterparts, demonstrated Nato’s effectiveness but it must be a concern to western planners that only 3 or 4 out of 20 drones (even if they were not armed) were shot down – a low proportion compared to what Ukraine typically achieves.

 

6m ago

17.51 BST

Poland got 'proposals for concrete support for air defence,' Tusk says after calls with leaders

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said after his phone calls with European leaders (16:26, 17:02) that he “received not only expressions of solidarity with Poland, but above all, proposals for concrete support for the air defence of our country.”

 

He didn’t offer more details at this stage.