NATO Shoots Down Russian Drones Over Poland

0:00Today on State of the World, NATO shoots down Russian drones over Poland. You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Wednesday, September 10th. I'm Greg Dixon. More than a dozen Russian drones entered Poland's airspace Tuesday night, triggering NATO fighter jets to scramble and shoot them down. The drones came as part of a larger wave Russia sent to attack neighboring Ukraine. Still, it is the first time ever that the NATO alliance has engaged enemy aircraft in allied airspace. In response, Poland invoked Article 4 of NATO.

0:45We'll hear more about that provision in a few minutes. First, NPR's Rob Schmitz in Berlin gives us more details on what happened and what it means. He spoke to Juana Summers. Rob, what do we know about these drones and why they were flying in the airspace of a NATO member? Yeah, we know this happened the same night as a large-scale drone and missile attack that Russia launched on Ukraine. Ukraine's Air Force says more than 400 Russian drones were involved in last night's attack, including areas in western Ukraine that border Poland. We're still not certain about the exact number of Russian drones that flew into Polish airspace, but Poland's government believes it was more than a dozen and as many as 19.

1:24And once these drones crossed into Poland, NATO scrambled fighter jets that included Polish F-16s, Dutch F-35s, German Patriot Air Defense Systems, and even an Italian surveillance aircraft. And a number of these drones were then shot down. Were these drones armed? Were they targeting NATO territory? Well, according to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, these drones were deliberately set on this course into Poland and that they were armed with ammunition, but he did not elaborate on what exactly their payloads were. Now, Poland's government invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, and that's a rarely used mechanism.

2:00It's triggered when a member state is under threat, and it enables an emergency meeting with other NATO states. So tell us, how's NATO responding? Well, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke this afternoon to reporters, and he said NATO has launched an investigation to gather more details about this incursion, but he used today's incident to underline the need for Europe to start arming itself. Here's what he said. This only reinforces the importance of NATO and the path to which allies agreed at our summit in The Hague earlier this year. We need to invest more in our defense, ramp up defense production, so we have what we need to deter and defend.

2:40And we need to continue to support Ukraine, whose security is interlinked with our own. And Wana, he also had a message for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said that Putin must stop this war in Ukraine, he must stop targeting innocent civilians, and that he must stop violating allied airspace. How has Russia responded so far? Yeah, it's been a bit of a mixed response. Earlier today, an official from Russia's ally and Poland's neighbor, Belarus, seemed to frame last night's incident as an accident that was caused when the drones veered off course after encountering what they called electronic interference.

3:17In other words, it was an accident. But later on, Russia's defense ministry then said it had not planned to hit any targets in Poland and suggested that Poland was out of range of Russian drones, which is not true. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also weighed in. He accused the leadership of the EU and NATO of making accusations against Russia on what he called a daily basis without providing evidence. But Peskov stopped short of denying Russia involvement. Rob, what comes next? Yeah, so NATO members have already met today, and the alliance will investigate this situation further. You know, it's worth pointing out here that this incursion happened a day after Poland said that it had closed its border with Belarus due to what it called aggressive military exercises, as well as a growing number of provocations from both Russia and Belarus.

4:04So the situation along that border has been pretty tense for quite some time already. And here's Rob Schmitz in Berlin. Thank you, Rob. Thank you. As Rob Schmitz just told us, Poland has invoked NATO's Article 4, which calls alliance members to an emergency meeting. For more on what else this means and how NATO might respond, Mary Louise Kelly spoke to Rose Gottemmuller. She's former Deputy Secretary General of NATO. Article 4, yes, it's very clear. It states, and I quote, The parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence, or security of any of the parties is threatened.

4:44They will consult. So this is the step before, yes, this is the step before any invocation of Article 5, and I must stress that they are separate. This is just to consult together and to discuss the situation and exactly what happened and try to come to some conclusion. It is not necessarily by any means a prelude to invocation of Article 5. Is it right to see it almost as an intermediate step that might or might not lead to invoking Article 5 in collective defense? Traditionally, it has been a way for the allies, when they have run into a concerning security situation, to be able to gather together quickly.

5:22The message is one of urgency, and the message is one of the allies, with due regard to the potential for escalation, taking very careful stock, talking among themselves, and deciding exactly what the situation was and what action, if any, is required. So I don't want to in any way indicate again that this is a prelude to Article 5. It is very much the allies showing that they can quickly come together to act if they must, but they're going to be very careful in figuring out what is required. How quickly? Like, how quickly would you expect a meeting to happen? Well, it's happened today, so that could happen very, very quickly.

6:02And it's important from that perspective that NATO does have a regular presence at the headquarters of all its member states. And so everyone can be gathered together very quickly to meet and to consult in this way. But I think, you know, almost more important was the quick military response, which you reported on a moment ago, and the fact that all NATO countries were maybe not involved directly, but certainly aware of what was going on. And then we had countries across the alliance. There were the Polish F-16s involved, but also Dutch F-35s, Italian AWACS planes, refueling aircraft. So it was really a large-scale NATO operation, again, conveying that the NATO allies can come together quickly in order to respond to an urgent military threat.

6:52Rose Gautamuller, you spoke a moment ago about the way this has traditionally worked, which prompts me to note there is precedent. I was reading that since NATO's creation, Article 4 has been invoked seven times. Most recently, I gather, in 2022. That was by members in Eastern Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. For this current, today's invocation of Article 4 by Poland, what kind of message is it intended to send? I mean, NATO could just say, hey, we're going to meet, let's everybody get on the phone or gather in Brussels without invoking Article 4. Yeah, no, Article 4, because it is part of the Washington Treaty, the founding treaty of NATO, really conveys a seriousness, a seriousness of concern, first and foremost, and a seriousness of consideration of what the response should be.

7:39And so I think that that is the core message here, and that is what Article 4 is all about. NATO allies meet multiple times a week at NATO headquarters in Brussels, but getting together under the aegis of Article 4 conveys a grave concern and also a readiness to really develop whatever response measures are needed on an intensive and quick basis. We've got about a minute left, but I want to flip the question around and ask what kind of message is Russia sending? Why is Russia sending drones into NATO airspace now? Yes, it's very interesting when you read the official response of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

8:20They said kind of coyly the destruction of targets in Poland was not planned. So there could be two reasons why these drones strayed into Polish airspace overnight. The first could be that it was a genuine mistake. and the Belarusians have said that electronic warfare was jamming these drones and they strayed into the Polish airspace and Belarus even warned Poland about that. So that's a possible explanation. Another one is that Moscow indeed was probing and probing air defenses and seeing how the Allies would respond. So that's, I think, the decision that NATO's weighing now. What exactly was this?

8:58Was this intentional or was it an accident? Rose Gautamuller, former Deputy Secretary General of NATO, thank you. You're welcome.

9:15That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.