By Andrew Gray, Barbara Erling and Michelle Nichols BRUSSELS/WARSAW/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - NATO announced plans to beef up the defence of Europe's eastern flank on Friday, two days after Poland shot down drones that had violated its airspace in the first known action of its kind by a member of the Western alliance during Russia's war in Ukraine.

European governments have pledged new military assistance to Poland after an estimated 24 Russian drones penetrated Polish airspace on Sept 10. Britain, Denmark, France and Germany are contributing additional fighter jets and other military assets to boost what United States General Alexus Grynkewich,

NATO is preparing a defensive military response to the drone incursion in Poland to strengthen deterrence across the alliance’s eastern flank, according to a person familiar with the matter.

BRANIEWO, Poland (Reuters) -Six kilometres from the Russian border in northern Poland, office administrator Agnieszka Jedruszak is digging a trench. Driven by fear of war with Russia, she wants to be able to defend her family,

Article 4 allows member states to start a formal discussion within the alliance about threats to their security. It does not commit the alliance to military action.

NATO will launch a new deterrence initiative called "Eastern Sentry" in response to Russia's drone attack on Poland, the military alliance's secretary general Mark Rutte announced on Sept. 12.

The United States told the United Nations Security Council on Friday it would "defend every inch of NATO territory" after a suspected Russian drone incursion into Poland.

The U.S.-led military alliance said it would bolster defenses along its eastern flank after the incursion, the first of its kind since the Ukraine war began; Russia denied targeting Poland.

Multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland in what European officials described as a deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament it was "the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two."

Jen Psaki explains that after NATO members in Europe responded with alarm to an incursion of Russian drones into Poland, risking a drastic escalation, Donald Trump seemed more inclined to make excuses for Vladimir Putin than to stand with allies in discouraging Russian belligerence.