NATO Downs Russian Drones over Poland

October 2025
By Xiaodon Liang

NATO forces shot down Russian drones over Poland Sept. 10, responding to an incursion at a scale unprecedented since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Twenty-one drones were detected in Polish airspace, flying primarily out of Belarus, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Polish and Dutch aircraft responded by shooting down at least three of the unmanned aircraft. No casualties have been reported in Poland, although falling debris—likely from a NATO air-to-air interceptor—damaged a house near Lublin.

Russian officials denied targeting the territory of Poland and implied that drones used in the war against Ukraine do not have the range to reach Polish targets.

But visual analysis of debris by multiple media outlets and Polish authorities confirm the aircraft are of Russian origin, likely Gerbera-type drones that can be equipped either as decoys or with explosive charges. The Gerbera is a derivative of the Iranian Shahed-136, which Tehran has supplied to Moscow in support of the latter’s war effort.

The chief of the general staff of Belarus’s military, Pavel Muraveiko, blamed the drone incursion on jamming by Russia and Ukraine. He claimed Belarusian forces had downed some stray drones before they reached Poland, and that his forces had exchanged information with Polish and Lithuanian counterparts.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the incursion was “reckless” and “unacceptable” regardless of Russian intentions, speaking Sept. 12 at a press conference.

The “Kremlin wanted to test the readiness of NATO allies,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Sept. 17 in a comment to Newsweek.

A joint statement issued Sept. 12 by Sikorski and his Lithuanian and Ukrainian counterparts directly accused Russia of a “deliberate and coordinated strike constituting an unprecedented provocation and escalation of tension.”

The drone incursion marked one of several Russian violations of NATO airspace in September. Three Russian MiG-31 combat aircraft entered Estonian airspace for 12 minutes in transit Sept. 20 toward Kaliningrad, and a sole Russian drone breached Romanian airspace Sept. 13, marking the eleventh similar incident according to data provided by the Romanian Ministry of Defense to ABC News. Individual Russian drones also have entered Polish airspace since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Polish Ministry of Defense noted Sept. 10.

Poland and Estonia requested consultations with NATO allies through invocation of Article 4 of the Washington Treaty, NATO’s founding agreement. On Sept. 12, Rutte and the supreme allied commander in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, announced a new air defense mission for the alliance’s eastern flank, named Eastern Sentry.

According to Grynkewich, the new mission constitutes a “comprehensive and integrated approach” to air defense that would make it easier for NATO “to plug gaps in the line” where and when needed.

Invocations of Article 4 are rare but have increased since Russia seized Crimea in 2014. The last invocation of the treaty measure came in February 2022, after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

At Poland’s request, the UN Security Council convened Sept. 12 to discuss the mass drone incursion.