Russia says did not target Polish sites in overnight drone attack

The Russian army on Wednesday said it did not target Polish sites in an overnight drone attack on Ukraine, after the NATO member said it had downed several Russian drones that breached its airspace.

"There were no intentions to engage any targets on the territory of Poland," Russia's defense ministry said in a statement in English, without confirming or denying that its drones had entered Polish airspace.

"We are ready to hold consultations on this subject with the Polish defense ministry," it added.

Russian drones that violated Polish airspace were "clearly set on this course" and "did not have to fly this route to reach Ukraine", German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Wednesday.

"There is absolutely no reason to believe that this was a course correction error or anything of the sort," Pistorius told the German parliament.

Government spokesman Sebastian Hille told reporters the incident "once again shows the threat that we face" and how much Germany and other NATO countries "are being tested by Russia".

The U.S. ambassador to NATO said Wednesday that Washington stood by its allies.

"We stand by our NATO Allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory," the U.S. envoy to the alliance, Matthew Whitaker, wrote on X.

NATO chief Mark Rutte on Wednesday slammed Moscow's "reckless behaviour" after Russian drones violated Polish airspace, and hailed the alliance's "very successful reaction" to counter the incursion.

"A full assessment is ongoing. But of course, whether it was intentional or not, it is absolutely reckless, it is absolutely dangerous," alliance chief Mark Rutte said after NATO members held emergency discussions.

Rutte said that NATO's "air defenses were activated and successfully assured the defense of NATO territory, as they are designed to do".

"To Putin, I mean, my message is clear: stop the war in Ukraine, stop the escalating war, which he is now basically mounting on innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure," he added.

"Stop violating allied airspace, and know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant, and that we will defend every inch of NATO territory," he said.

Poland gathered its NATO allies for urgent talks on Wednesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

Tusk denounced the "large-scale provocation", saying Poland had identified 19 violations of its airspace and shot down at least three drones after scrambling aircraft alongside allies, adding that no one was harmed.

Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members — including Poland — several times during Russia's three-and-a-half-year war, but a NATO country has never attempted to shoot them down.

Tusk said he had invoked NATO's Article 4 under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its "territorial integrity, political independence or security" are at risk — only the eighth time the measure has ever been used.

The incursion came as Russia unleashed a barrage of strikes across Ukraine, including in the western city of Lviv, around 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the Polish border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on social media that the airspace violation was a "dangerous precedent" for Europe, saying it was "no accident", and urged a strong response from Kiev's Western allies.

Poland's interior ministry said that a house and a car had been damaged overnight, adding that seven drones and debris from an unknown projectile had so far been located.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO's main political decision-making body, changed the format of its weekly meeting on Wednesday, holding it under Article 4 of the alliance treaty.

A cornerstone of the Western military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.

'Act of aggression' 

Russia's top diplomat in Poland, Andrei Ordash, told RIA Novosti he had been summoned to the foreign ministry for a meeting at noon (1000 GMT).

He said Warsaw was yet to show evidence that the drones shot down overnight had come from Russia.

The operational command of Poland's military said the airspace violations were "unprecedented" and called it "an act of aggression".

A senior NATO diplomat, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the incursion was "not seen as the start of something bigger".

"There was no word on whether this was intentional — it looks like it was either aimed at testing NATO or could have been the aim was to approach targets in Ukraine from a different angle," the diplomat said.

The response from NATO would probably be "shifting a few extra assets" to Poland or elsewhere in the east, and pushing a "tough line" from the NATO secretary general.

Zelensky said the attack was an attempt to "humiliate" Poland.

"Russia must feel that the response to this escalatory step, and even more so to an attempt to humiliate one of Europe's key countries, will be clear and strong from all partners," Zelensky said.

Polish authorities had temporarily closed the airspace over part of the country following the incident.

It came a day after Poland's newly elected nationalist President Karol Nawrocki warned that Putin was ready to invade more countries after launching his war in Ukraine.

"We do not trust Vladimir Putin's good intentions," Nawrocki told reporters Tuesday. "We believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to also invade other countries."

Poland, a major supporter of Ukraine, hosts over a million Ukrainian refugees and is a key transit point for Western humanitarian and military aid to the war-torn country.