Poland woke up last week to the sound of war on its doorstep. Nineteen Russian drones violated its airspace. Polish jets scrambled. NATO fighters joined in. Airports shut down. A house was hit. This wasn’t an accident. This was a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin: “I can cross NATO’s red lines whenever I choose.” If it can happen in Poland today, it can happen anywhere in Europe tomorrow.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk didn’t mince words: This was the closest his nation has been to open conflict since World War II. He invoked NATO’s Article 4, the step before collective defense under Article 5, and called it what it is – a deliberate provocation.
Moscow’s denials ring hollow. NATO radar tracked the drones. Civilian airports had to close. One drone even crashed into a home. These aren’t “stray” drones. They’re trial balloons. Putin is probing, testing, daring the West to blink.
For two years, Poland has been Ukraine’s lifeline. Weapons, aid, and over a million refugees have flowed – through its territory. In Moscow’s eyes, that makes Poland enemy number one after Ukraine. By sending drones into Polish airspace, Putin wasn’t targeting a farmhouse. He was targeting NATO itself. He wanted to know whether the West would enforce its own rules or look away yet again.
This is not new. Putin annexed Crimea in 2014. He invaded Ukraine in 2022.
He uses Belarus as a staging ground. He cuts off gas, spreads lies online, and wages war by every means short of a nuclear strike. Now he’s crossing NATO borders with drones. This is the plan. Putin has told us before: The fall of the Soviet Union was a “catastrophe.” He wants it back. Piece by piece. Border by border. The question isn’t whether he stops. It’s whether we stop him.
If Russian drones can hit Poland, they can hit Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, or Romania. And if they can hit them, they can hit Berlin, Paris, or London in other ways, through cyberattacks, sabotage, or worse. Europe can no longer comfort itself with illusions. Ukraine is not just Ukraine’s fight. It is Europe’s shield. Every Russian drone shot down over Lviv is one less threat over Warsaw. Every tank destroyed in Donetsk is one less rolling toward Riga.
Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian security official, put it bluntly: Europe has only two choices – fight Russia in Ukraine now, or fight Russia in the Baltics later. There is no third option.
Arm Ukraine, fortify NATO, and draw a line
That means three things, immediately.
First, arm Ukraine, seriously. Stop debating. Send the long-range missiles, the air defenses, the drones. Flood the battlefield with what Ukraine needs to win.
Second, fortify NATO’s eastern flank. Poland and the Baltics can’t be treated as buffer zones. They are the front line. Permanent deployments, not rotations. Hardened defenses, not half-measures.
Third, draw a line and mean it. NATO must make it crystal clear that the next Russian incursion into allied airspace will not be brushed off. It will be treated as aggression with consequences Moscow cannot mistake.
This drone strike on Poland is not a one-off. It is a warning shot. A test. If we let Putin cross into NATO territory without cost, he will not stop at drones. He will not stop at Ukraine. He will not stop until he has clawed back the Soviet empire and restored its glory as he views it.
The choice before Europe is as stark as it is urgent: Act now in Ukraine, or wait for the day when Russian drones buzz not just over Lviv and Warsaw, but over Tallinn, Berlin, and beyond. The time to act is not tomorrow. It is today.
The writer is a spokesperson and communications specialist with a BA in Journalism, Communications, and International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an MA in International Relations with a specialization in Russian affairs.