Trump vows to defend Poland as Russia drone escalation tests NATO

President Donald Trump vowed to defend Poland if it faced Russia, saying he would come to its aid should Moscow escalate, as a wave of drone activity sparked the most serious confrontation in Europe since the start of the Ukraine war. The pledge came as Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House, on his way to attend the memorial for assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk. When asked whether the United States would defend Poland and the Baltic states if Russia continued its provocations, Trump replied, “Yeah, I would, I will.”

Earlier this month, suicide drones launched by Russia repeatedly violated Polish airspace during a Kremlin strike on Ukraine. Polish air defenses scrambled to intercept 19 Shahed-2 drones, with at least three shot down, and another was neutralised over Poland’s presidential palace in Warsaw. Falling debris from the incursion damaged several homes, a car and a military base used by Poland’s Territorial Defence Forces. NATO was pressed to deploy a multinational fighter jet contingent and employed Italian surveillance aircraft after Patriot systems detected drones on their radars. The clash marked the first time a NATO member shot down drones in its own territory, a development that prompted officials to stress allied unity in responses to the incident.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, invoked NATO’s Article 4, which allows allies to consult urgently when territorial integrity or security is threatened. The North Atlantic Council changed the format of its weekly meeting to discuss the situation, signaling a heightened level of concern among alliance members. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the airspace violation as a dangerous precedent and urged a strong, united NATO response.

Trump also phoned Polish President Karol Nawrocki to discuss the incident, with Nawrocki later saying on X that the talks reaffirmed allied unity. In the days that followed, a drone flew over Poland’s presidential palace in Warsaw on September 15, an apparent further provocation. Poland’s State Protection Service neutralised the drone and detained two Belarusians connected to the launch, according to officials who provided details to the press.

Tensions in the Baltic region appeared to widen as Estonia, Romania and again Poland reported intrusions by Russian aerial assets. Estonia summoned NATO allies for urgent talks after three Russian fighter jets breached its airspace, prompting NATO to deploy F-35 fighters to intercept the incursions. Estonian authorities and foreign ministers stressed the need for a united, robust alliance response. In response to the broader pattern of provocations, regional leaders spoke of adapting deterrence strategies to counter this new domain of threat. The Romanian defense ministry later confirmed a drone incursion into its airspace on September 13 during a Russian strike on infrastructure west of Ukraine; Romanian jets detected the drone on radar before it disappeared near the Danube region.

Officials and analysts described the sequence of events as a significant escalation that tests NATO’s collective security guarantees and the alliance’s ability to deter aggression on Europe’s eastern flank. While Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian targets, the spillover into NATO territory raised questions about command-and-control coordination, air-defense readiness, and the political willingness of member states to activate mutual-defense mechanisms. As allies reassess threat perceptions and deterrence postures, the coming weeks are expected to shape NATO’s posture and the transatlantic relationship in an era of intensified great-power competition.