Tusk: Poland Seeks NATO Article 4 Invocation
Warsaw is seeking consultations with alliance members following a reported incursion into its airspace by drones it identified as Russian.
Poland has formally activated Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty after what it characterized as “an act of aggression” from Russia. This article facilitates discussions should any member state perceive its security to be threatened.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced he had submitted the request after briefing legislators on the alleged airspace breaches. Russia has not yet issued a statement regarding these accusations.
According to Tusk, the Polish armed forces detected 19 distinct violations of its airspace over a period of seven hours, with at least three and potentially four drones brought down.
He asserted that the aircraft originated from Belarus, not Ukraine, and labeled the incident a Russian “provocation.”
Earlier, the Belarusian military reported providing its Polish counterparts with advance notice that some drones, utilized by Ukrainian and Russian forces for reciprocal attacks, “lost their track as a result of the impact of the parties’ electronic warfare assets.”
“This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty,” stated General Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the general staff of Belarus.
The general further noted that several of the stray aircraft were intercepted by Belarusian air defenses. He emphasized that these exchanges with Poland were part of routine communications concerning incoming threats, with Polish officials regularly informing their Belarusian counterparts about aircraft detected within Ukrainian airspace.
Numerous EU officials conveyed solidarity with Poland, attributing responsibility to Russia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen referenced the incident in her “state of the union” address at the European Parliament on Wednesday, advocating for ongoing military aid to Ukraine.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, described the event as “the most serious European airspace violation by Russia” since the intensification of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, claiming that “indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.”
Last week, former Polish President Andrzej Duda recalled a November 2022 incident where a Ukrainian interceptor missile landed on Polish territory, causing a civilian fatality. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky insisted it was a deliberate Russian attack and urged Warsaw to call for NATO-level retaliation.
Duda commented that the Ukrainian leadership was “obviously” attempting to draw the US-led organization into direct conflict with Russia, characterizing such a scenario as a “dream” for Kyiv, but unacceptable for Poland.