BRUSSELS (AP) — Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO has focused on trying to deter an attack on its own territory and avoid all-out war with nuclear armed Russia. Now the time has come for NATO to defend itself, and European allies might have to do it alone, experts and leaders say.

Glide bombs and fiber-optic drones are two Russian weapons that are extremely difficult to defeat.

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.

NATO says it's bulking up its defensive posture on its eastern flank bordering Belarus, Russia and Ukraine with new equipment.

WOHYN, Poland (AP) — Multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland in what European officials described Wednesday as a deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down. A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance confronted a potential threat in its airspace.

The Polish government asking NATO for a consultation after Russian drones crossed into soverign territory in its war against Ukraine.

For more than three years, Ukraine has been battling Russian attack drones. On Wednesday, NATO got a taste of that fight.

President Donald Trump has weighed back in on the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine after drones belonging to the Kremlin entered Polish airspace earlier in the week, not long after the 79-year-old pledge to defend every corner of NATO territory.