There are at least five lessons that Europe and the U.S. should take away from Russia’s unprecedented decision to fire drones into Poland as part of another massive volley against Ukraine. All require either an immediate response or recalculation.
First and most important: Nobody in the future should be able to dismiss as ridiculous the idea that Russia — struggling so mightily in Ukraine — would ever take on a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member. It just did, regardless of the Russian Defense Ministry’s claim on Wednesday to have had no intent of striking any targets in Poland. Nineteen drones entered Polish airspace, according to Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, enough to make clear this was a deliberate action and for Poland to invoke NATO’s Article 4, calling on allies to consult when a member is under threat.
According to Fabian Hinz, of London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, analysis of those downed drones available so far indicates they were of Gerberas, a cheap fixed wing model designed for the Russian military in China. These have multiple roles, and including as attack drones and as decoys to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses.
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