Trump says Moscow ‘violating’ airspace as Poland warns of escalation after Russian drone breach

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday raised alarm over Russian drones entering Polish airspace, calling it a violation of NATO ally Poland’s airspace with drones as Warsaw convened emergency talks with allies.

“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, shortly after the White House said he was monitoring the situation and would speak with Polish President Karol Nawrocki.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that Russian drones crossed into the country’s airspace 19 times during an attack on Ukraine. He said at least three drones were shot down after Poland and allied forces scrambled jets.

“This is edging closer to open conflict,” Tusk warned, while noting that no casualties were reported.

Footage posted by local media showed firefighters and the army in Wyryki-Wola, a village in eastern Poland, inspecting a house with its roof ripped open and debris littered nearby.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the intrusion was not accidental, calling it “an unprecedented case of an attack not only on Poland’s territory but also on the territory of NATO and the European Union”.

Russia’s defence ministry denied targeting Poland and its foreign ministry accused Warsaw of spreading “myths” to escalate the war in Ukraine. The Russian embassy in Warsaw separately told AFP that “Poland has failed to provide evidence of the Russian origin of the objects that entered Polish airspace”.

Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members including Poland several times during Russia’s three-and-a-half-year war, but a NATO country has never attempted to shoot them down.

Tusk said he had invoked NATO’s Article 4, under which a member can call urgent talks when it feels its “territorial integrity, political independence or security” are at risk – only the eighth time the measure has been used.

“This situation… brings us closer than ever to open conflict since World War II,” Tusk told parliament, though there is “no reason today to claim that we are in a state of war”.

The incident came as Russia unleashed a barrage of strikes across Ukraine, including in the western city of Lviv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the airspace violation was a “dangerous precedent” for Europe and urged a strong response from Kyiv’s Western allies.

Poland’s interior ministry said a house and a car had been damaged overnight, adding that seven drones and debris from an unknown projectile had been located so far.

“We were just sitting there, and this plane flew over… I said to my husband: ‘Why is this plane so loud today?’ And suddenly, a bang, and that was it,” Alicja Wesolowska, 64, whose house was destroyed, told AFP in Wyryki-Wola.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO’s main political decision-making body, changed the format of its weekly meeting on Wednesday to hold it under Article 4 of the treaty. A cornerstone of NATO is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.

NATO chief Mark Rutte hailed his organisation’s “very successful reaction”, telling journalists the alliance’s air defences had done their job.He denounced Moscow’s “reckless behaviour” and called on Putin to halt a war that he said was now being waged on civilians.

With inputs from agencies