WASHINGTON—Nearly half a day after NATO ordered jet fighters to shoot down Russian drones over Polish territory, President Trump issued his first public comment on the incident on his social-media platform,

Russia breached NATO airspace by sending drones into Poland early on September 10, 2025, escalating the Ukraine war onto NATO soil and shocking Europe. Polish forces shot down multiple Russian drones that entered their airspace for the first time,

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in its fourth year, and the US wavering in its commitment to Western European security, there’s speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is testing NATO’s collective security arrangements.

NATO has launched Operation Eastern Sentry to enhance defense across Europe's eastern flank following Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace. This move aims to demonstrate NATO's defense capabilities with assets from various allies.

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.

President Donald Trump reacted Wednesday with a degree of bemusement toward Russia’s drone incursion into Poland, a NATO member that Trump has previously vowed to defend amid heightened tensions with Moscow.

The incursion of Russian drones into Poland's airspace came three days after Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.

General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, has said he believes the operation to shoot down Russian drones that violated Polish airspace was successful. Source: Grynkewich at a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday 12 September,

Russia’s violation of Poland’s airspace with drones on Wednesday marks the most serious cross-border incident into a NATO member country since the war began.

Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not as well known as its Article 5 collective security guarantee — which says an attack on all is an attack on one — but it is being increasingly invoked,

Dr White told us that this incident “is likely to strengthen Polish and Nato support for Ukraine as it poses a direct threat to Nato. It is an escalation by Russia and is probably a means to see just how robust the air defences are, and how unified Nato is to such actions.”