European NATO states are reportedly ‘dismayed and confused’ by Washington’s reaction to an alleged Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace, according to Reuters.
Some members of the bloc view US President Donald Trump’s reluctance to outright blame Moscow for the incident on Wednesday as a sign that he is not committed enough to their defense, the news agency reported on Saturday, citing unnamed European officials.
US aircraft also played no role in repelling the alleged attack, according to Reuters. US officials said it was because the Dutch military was responsible for Polish airspace within NATO at the time.
“Trump’s handling of the incident has ranged from dismay to confusion and unease,”Reuters said. A German official told the news agency that European NATO members “cannot rely on anything” with the Trump administration.
An Eastern European diplomat called Washington’s “silence” on the matter “almost deafening,” while an Italian official told Reuters that NATO members were mostly displeased with the US reaction.
The Polish government stated that its military tracked at least 19 alleged violations of its airspace by Russian drones over a seven-hour period on Wednesday, describing the episode as “deliberate” and “unprecedented.” It also convened an emergency UN Security Council meeting over the incident.
Trump downplayed the accusations, suggesting that the alleged incident “could have been a mistake.” He also said he was “not happy about anything having to do with that whole situation”and expressed hope that it would just “come to an end.”
Moscow responded by saying Warsaw’s claims were not supported by evidence and hyped up by the “European party of war.” Drones used in strikes against Ukrainian military targets could not “physically” reach Polish territory, Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said.
European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, condemned the alleged incursion as “reckless”and expressed solidarity with Poland.
Russia cautions Poland against drone ‘hysteria’
Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has dismissed accusations that Moscow intentionally violated Polish airspace earlier this week, insisting that claims of an “attack” on the NATO state were unsupported by evidence and hyped up by what he called the “European party of war.”
The Polish government said its military tracked at least 19 alleged violations over a seven-hour period on Wednesday, describing the episode as “deliberate” and “unprecedented.”
“Warsaw hastily pinned blame on Russia, without presenting any evidence whatsoever,”Nebenzia told the Security Council on Friday. He argued that damage reported in eastern Poland was consistent with falling debris rather than an explosive strike, and noted that Polish officials themselves admitted no warheads had been found.
According to the Russian diplomat, the drones used in strikes against Ukrainian military targets on the night of September 10 had a range of no more than 700 kilometers – “making it physically impossible for them to reach Poland.” He suggested that some of the reported devices may have malfunctioned or been disrupted by electronic warfare or GPS spoofing; Belarus had promptly warned Warsaw of possible risks.
Nebenzia said Moscow was willing to engage in professional dialogue with Polish officials to investigate the incident, but warned against “megaphone diplomacy” and what he described as “information campaigns” designed to prolong the Ukraine conflict.
The envoy also drew parallels to the 2022 Przewodow incident, in which two Poles were killed by a missile later acknowledged to have been launched by Ukraine. He accused Kiev of seeking to “drag NATO into war” and said European leaders were once again using “hysterical outbursts” about Russian aggression to justify militarization.
“Who benefits from this artificially inflated hysteria? Only the Kiev regime and the European party of war, who are desperately trying to derail the prospects for a Ukrainian settlement that began to take shape as a result of Russian-American contacts in August,”Nebenzia argued.
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