Polish fighter jets, with help from NATO allies, shot down multiple Russian drones that entered its eastern border early on Sept. 10. It was the first time the NATO member directly engaged with Russian military assets in its airspace since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"The Russian military knows exactly where their drones are headed," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.

Russia and NATO are currently in the most open confrontation since the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War — but only one side seems to be acknowledging it. The incursion of 21 Russian drones into Polish airspace on Sept.

NATO member Poland will not hesitate to shoot down objects that violate its airspace and pose a threat, but will take a more cautious approach to situations that are less clear-cut, the prime minister said on Monday.

Russia claimed on Monday that NATO is at war with Moscow despite the trans-Atlantic alliance’s position that recent flare-ups over the Ukrainian conflict have not escalated to that level. “NATO is at war with Russia.

NATO’s central purpose is to defend its member states from attack, real or perceived, and that’s what NATO did.

For NATO air defenses with little direct experience with the drone attacks now emerging as a dominant feature of modern warfare, the incident might even have been educational—like a child’s foray on training wheels—but some aircraft managed to penetrate deep into Poland.

A swarm of Russian drones flew last week into Poland in what officials there regarded as a deliberate provocation.

Poland’s foreign minister has suggested that NATO states should consider imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine to protect the alliance’s territory and people from Russian drones.