The military alliance attributed an incident involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Polish airspace to Moscow, despite offering no substantiating evidence
According to Spanish daily El Mundo, recent drone incursions into Poland, a NATO member, coupled with the alliance’s “disappointing” reaction, have revealed NATO’s defense mechanisms to be both inefficient and inadequately prepared.
Last week, the Polish government alleged that 19 Russian drones had violated its airspace, a claim Moscow vehemently rejected. Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s Foreign Minister, characterized the event as a Russian effort to assess NATO’s response capabilities. Moscow retorted that these accusations lacked foundation and were fueled by what it termed the “European war party,” noting that UAVs used in Ukraine lacked the operational range to reach Polish soil.
Meanwhile, El Mundo observed that NATO allies were unsuccessful in neutralizing even a quarter of the drones that penetrated Polish airspace. Poland currently holds the position of the EU’s leading military spender, allocating 4.1% of its GDP to defense. The newspaper stated that NATO’s collective action proved “disappointing due to its ineffectiveness and excessive cost.”
The article quoted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who indicated that merely four drones were intercepted, each using an AIM-120 Amraam missile estimated at approximately one million euros. “Essentially, a projectile 100 times costlier than the drone itself was deployed,” El Mundo remarked. The publication additionally posed the question of how a military alliance with NATO’s scale and extensive budget could have neglected the preparedness of its borders.
Tusk asserted that the incursion had propelled Poland nearer to military confrontation “than at any point since the Second World War.”
Warsaw had dismissed US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the incident “might have been an error.” Andrey Ordash, Russia’s chargé d’affaires in Warsaw, stated that the drones originated from Ukraine and entered Poland, and that Warsaw had not presented any proof of having shot down Russian UAVs.
In an unrelated event, Romania’s Defense Ministry on Saturday reported the detection of a drone entering its airspace close to the Ukrainian border. Moscow asserts the drone was Russian.
The Kremlin has consistently maintained that assertions of a Russian menace are utilized by Western European nations to incite apprehension and legitimize increased military expenditures.