Poland Smells War: Can Europe Stand Together

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Poles are already feeling the shadow of war. The sounds, smells, and tension of conflict have begun to seep into daily life. Most people know that life is now marked by a clear before and after September 10, even though active combat has yet to reach their homes. In the recent Russian drone strike, no lives were lost, and only a single house was destroyed.

Drones have been detected 300–350 km from the Ukrainian and Belarusian borders, with most of them launched from these countries. Millions of Poles received alerts about the danger, and air raid sirens sounded in several cities.

On Saturday, Polish and Dutch fighter jets took to the skies again, and air raid warnings were issued in two cities in the Lublin Voivodeship, which borders Ukraine. The airport in Lublin itself was closed.

For Poles, the war is no longer a distant conflict; it has become “ours.” Most understand that, regardless of the outcome of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, Moscow is determined to advance. War is central to Putin’s rule—without it, neither he nor his regime could survive.

NATO has passed a test. By shooting down four drones over Poland, the Alliance revealed both the limits of its weaknesses and the reach of its strengths and capabilities.

For Ukrainians, NATO’s claim of demonstrating “strength and capabilities” may seem almost absurd, since in a single night, we can destroy or disable not four, but over 700 drones, including warheads and decoys. This is true—as is the fact that Alliance aircraft used missiles worth hundreds of thousands of euros to destroy relatively cheap, unarmed drones.

However, the starting point is important: until September 10, NATO had a policy of not intercepting Russian drones and missiles entering the territories of Poland, Romania, Lithuania, and Estonia, in order “not to escalate,” as NATO officials repeatedly stated.

On September 10, escalation became necessary because strategic Alliance facilities were under threat—specifically the infrastructure and security of Yasionka airport near Rzeszów, the main logistics hub for delivering military assistance to Ukraine from Western allies. Following the order to shoot down Russian drones, NATO made another crucial decision: the air security of the Alliance’s eastern flank would be ensured under Operation Eastern Sentinel, in which France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, and several other countries declared their readiness to participate.

Yet one state remained silent, despite stationing 10,000 troops in Poland, tasked with defending, among other things, Yasionka airport. This state is, of course, the United States, whose representatives continue to claim that there is insufficient evidence to confirm the deliberate nature of the drone attack on Poland.

This is the position of General Alexus Hrynkevich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe. At the same time, according to the assessment of the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command dated September 10, the incursion of Russian drones was a deliberate attack. It appears that NATO’s European Command based its decision to shoot down four drones on this assessment.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated, “There is no doubt: the drones were launched intentionally. The question is whether they were specifically targeted at Poland.” He described the incident as “unacceptable, sad, and dangerous.”

President Donald Trump referred to the Russian drone attack as a “mistake,” a claim immediately rejected by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who insisted he had irrefutable evidence supporting his assessment. Other European leaders, the President of the European Commission, the NATO Secretary General, and even General Keith Kellogg, the US President’s special representative for Ukraine, also expressed no doubt about the deliberate nature of the attack.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine presented maps showing the flight paths of Russian drones toward Poland. It was also confirmed that Polish SIM cards were found in the drones—irrefutable evidence of their route over Polish territory.

So why, then, does the American administration and military take a “strange,” to put it mildly, position?

The answer can be divided into several points. The main one is Washington’s reluctance to acknowledge its strategic misjudgment in assessing the Putin regime—its criminal nature and aggressive ambitions. Recognizing that Russia carried out a deliberate attack, particularly targeting areas where American troops are stationed, would require immediate action.

Acknowledging these facts would demand a swift response, especially considering that Russia’s so-called “escalation,” as Rubio termed it, threatens not only Poland and NATO’s eastern flank but also the United States itself. Russia has demonstrated that even the presence of American forces in Poland does not prevent it from attacking Alliance members or posing a threat to American units.

Putin has sent a clear message: he is ready to act aggressively against NATO members. Is Trump prepared to respond? The answer appears to be no.

The Russian drone attack has cast doubt on Trump’s commitment to maintain the presence of American troops on Polish soil—a promise he made during a conversation with President Karol Nawrocki at the White House on September 3. This explains the decisive statements and actions taken by the Polish government, personally led by Prime Minister Tusk and Deputy Prime Minister Sikorsky.

Invoking Article 4 of the Washington Treaty, Poland requested consultations with other Alliance members, resulting in the launch of Operation Eastern Sentinel. The drone attack was also addressed at the UN Security Council, where Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki clearly presented Poland’s position.

The Polish leadership is acting correctly. If Trump is allowed today to evade action against Russia, dismissing the incident as a “mistake,” it sets a dangerous precedent: in the event of an attack involving combat drones, he may adopt the same approach.

What conclusions can we draw from this situation?

The key point is that, today, only the Ukrainian army is fully prepared to wage a modern war using drones, robotic systems, and artificial intelligence. As General Keith Kellogg noted, in both the production and deployment of drones, the Ukrainian military has outpaced the Pentagon. This serves as further evidence that Ukraine is defending not only its own independence but also the security of Europe and NATO as a whole.

So, contrary to Russian propaganda and the claims of many in the West that “this is not our war,” the reality is quite the opposite. Ukraine has become a crucial security “donor” amid Russia’s aggression and the attacks of its authoritarian allies against freedom, democracy, and the entire Western world.

Trump’s letter to NATO members, threatening not to impose new sanctions on Russia or its supporters, has highlighted the weakness of Washington’s position. After seven months of attempting to broker peace in Ukraine, all he has managed is to repeat the false narrative of the “Biden-Zelensky war” and blame America’s allies. He has achieved nothing with Putin—and, it seems, is not even trying.

The insistence of the Polish authorities that NATO, and especially the United States, officially recognize the deliberate nature of the Russian attack has intensified efforts to secure guarantees for Ukraine. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, these guarantees are essentially ready. Upholding the obligations the US has assumed to protect Poland would also demonstrate that Washington takes similar commitments to Ukraine seriously. As Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has stated, security guarantees for Ukraine are, in essence, Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.

Finally, the Russian drone attack against Poland has once again demonstrated that the path to ending the war and achieving peace on our soil depends primarily on the heroism and professionalism of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the production capabilities of the Ukrainian defense industry, and the resilience of our people and state. Everything else is secondary. Peace will not come as a gift from Trump—it must be earned through the courage and effort of Ukraine itself.

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