Russia sends drones into NATO airspace

September 16th, 2025
Adhiyanth Ram

Over the span of just 4 days, Russian drones violated Eastern European airspace, including NATO nations. In Poland, there were around 19 violations of Polish airspace on September 10th. This isn’t an instance to be taken lightly: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after the event that the country is closer to military conflict “than any time since World War 2.” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski claims that the drone incursion into Poland was an attempt by Russia to test the waters of NATO, seeing how far they would go to respond, while not launching a full-scale attack. The fact that all the NATO drones weren’t loaded with ammunition, even though they were capable of doing so, is an important fact that supports this theory. It may have been the first in a series of steadily escalating actions from Russia, as not long after, Romania became the second NATO country to have Russian drones in its airspace. After this event, Poland strengthened theirs and NATO’s air defences, shooting down at least three Russian drones.

Additionally, during the NATO meeting invoked by the 4th article of the North Atlantic Treaty, Britain, France, Denmark and Germany promised to send equipment and forces to Poland to prepare to defend itself against further Russian aggression. On the American front, President Trump recently issued a statement on Truth Social saying that American sanctions on Russian oil were in due time, he’d just wait for others world leaders to follow suit in ending their purchase of Russian oil. He went so far as to claim that the war would end if all NATO nations were to stop buying oil from Moscow and instead place 50-100% tariffs on China for its purchases of Russian petroleum. The Trump administration seems to be sending mixed signals, as on Friday, the US vowed to defend “every inch of NATO territory,” a far more provocative sentiment. Ultimately, time will tell whether this is an isolated instance or whether Russia continues to encroach on other Eastern European nations - a choice that seems largely tied to the response of the West.