By Emma Burrows, additional reporting by Jamey Keaten, Claudia Ciobanu and Lydia Doye
For more than three years, Ukraine has waged an almost nightly battle against Russian attack drones. NATO on Wednesday got a taste of that fight.
Polish authorities said they detected 19 violations of their airspace, prompting a million-dollar response as fighter jets were scrambled and Patriot air defense systems placed on alert. Up to four drones were shot down with the help of NATO allies.
The incursion showed NATO’s vulnerability to drone warfare. Russian authorities said they didn’t target Poland, and Belarus, a close ally, said some of the drones “lost their course” because they were jammed. Nonetheless, several European leaders and experts said Poland was deliberately targeted.
If one or two drones crossed into Polish airspace, it could have been a “technical malfunction,” but it “defies imagination that it could have been accidental” when there were 19,
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