Poland has shot down multiple Russian drones that crossed into its airspace during Moscow’s latest overnight strike on Ukraine, in what Warsaw described as an “unprecedented violation of Polish airspace” and a direct threat to its citizens.
The incident marks the first time a NATO member has destroyed Russian assets in its own skies since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
Polish Operation Command confirmed that its forces engaged the drones early Wednesday morning, stating, “This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said military operations were “related to multiple violations of Polish airspace” and confirmed that “the military has used weapons against the objects.”
In response to the incursions, Poland shut down four airports, including Warsaw Modlin, Rzeszów–Jasionka and Lublin. Citizens across three regions bordering Ukraine, including Mazowieckie where the capital Warsaw is located, were urged to shelter indoors as the scale of the incident unfolded.
The government convened emergency meetings throughout the night. President Karol Nawrocki announced he would chair a National Security Bureau briefing alongside the prime minister and defence chiefs. Despite their political rivalry, Nawrocki stressed the need for unity in the face of Russian aggression: “The security of our homeland is our highest priority and requires close cooperation.”
Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Warsaw was “in constant contact with NATO command” as the situation developed. NATO officials have not yet indicated whether Article 4 consultations will be triggered, but the shoot-down raises the possibility of a sharper alliance response.
The episode adds a dangerous new dimension to Russia’s war. While NATO air forces have patrolled and scrambled jets during cross-border strikes before, this is the first confirmed engagement of Russian drones by alliance forces inside a member’s territory. It is a test of both Poland’s air defence systems and NATO’s red lines in the conflict.
Gradually increase the pressure… What are we when we talk to Putin? A joke? Does he really think so? We send enough warnings so far, it does not seem to be understood.
At the very least NATO should mass troops on the border. Show Russia that it means business.
Poland should announce for every Russian drone that enters its airspace Ukraine gets a himars vehicle or some other asset. It would then be in Russia’s interest to keep them away.
We should extend our air defence zone to cover half of Ukraine in response,
That will learn him. If he does it again we should extend further.
Right track, but rather than half, go straight to covering the whole of unoccupied Ukraine up to 250km of the front-line.
NATO isn’t capable of doing that, without commuting jets to it and that would put us in a direct war with Russia. No missile defence platform is long enough range
Jets stationed in NATO countries bordering Ukraine, flying into Ukraine to defend the airspace.
It only puts us in a “direct war” with Russia if Russia chooses to see it that way,
Russia aircraft have downed American surveillance drones over the Black Sea but the USA didn’t see that as a “direct war”.
The jets have to do something and sooner or later that something will be shooting down a manned aircraft. Then it would clearly be war. In the case of the drone Russia pretended it was an accident, like they are doing now with Poland.
Harder to claim it’s an accident when it’s the publicly announced mission
Wrong. The jets just need to down the drones and cruise missiles over Ukrainian territory. They’re never even going to see a Russian aircraft as they stay on Russia’s side of the border – they don’t even dare to fly over the Ukranian territory that they occupy.
Fair although I can’t see any nation wanting to do it, as it’s just a matter of time before a mistake is made and a jet is shot down.
Yeah shot down by a air-to-air missile with a 300km range… maybe the R37 but given the VKS is firing up to 6 a day and not hitting anything…
No nation wants to do anything that an authoritarian dictator may find provocative. But most know what happens if you never do – even greater losses.
It’s not entirely true though that russian jets only operate within their own borders, they mainly do but there are videos of them very advanced during the latest push.
I want to see a reinforcement of the eastern flank to set a message, that should be the first step. If Russia continues to test nato then yeah something more solid needs to happen.
Yeah, videos…
Whether you believe or not is ultimately not relevant as which country could do this. Without US involvement and considering the risks I just can’t see it being politically viable at this point. It would require a much bigger escalation by Russia first.
Well in my view, bearing in mind the Minsk Agreement, we should have declared a no-fly zone over the whole of Ukraine the day Russian troops crossed the border. But then if we had not let Ukraine down comprehensively in terms of that Minsk Agreement in 2012, the invasion would not have happened at all.
And what, exactly, would/could Britain do in a similar situation?
Successive governments since 1990 have a great deal to answer for in placing Britain in this shameful predicament.
As some of our aircraft are assigned to the NATO policing mission they will be shooting down drones if ordered👍
But, as we know from Israel’s experience, massed mixed swarms at intervals require a great deal more than Britain’s paltry (but gallant) Royal Air Force, as currently established.
We, along with the rest of Europe, have unilaterally disarmed our conventional deterrent and millions have already paid the price for that in death, destruction and displacement.
Europe has not been blessed in its leaders for decades.
The full price for that has not yet been paid
How do you think Russian drones are getting to the UK?
HMG is no daft, there is a reason our air defence looks the way it does and it’s almost exclusively based on the world best interceptor and best air to air missile’s flying very far out to the Norwegian Sea or intercepting Russian aircraft in the Baltic in conjunction with NATO and JEF Allie’s.
GBAD is expensive, if you waste all our defence budget on covering the UK in ground based systems to intercept drones that can’t reach the UK you will have cut back considerably on useful capabilities that can forward project power and our defence umbrella.
We’ve seen that drones can be deployed en masse from shipping containers. It wouldn’t take much for Russia, Iran etc to sail a commercial ship close to the British coast, disguised intentions of course, and then release a swarm of drones (or multiple swarms from multiple ships potentially). A large portion of our military hardware could be put out of action in a single stroke. As could vital civil infrastructure such as power plants, damns that supply water to our cities, and defence factories.
We have become extremely complacent. More needs to be done and seen to be done. Otherwise we’re setting ourselves up for a big fall. Dispersal, contingencies, even just putting big nets over things to stop smaller drones (a six foot high fence is no barrier to a drone). But so far, virtually nothing.
You forget we in the west have something called intelligence services. No way can a nation sail vessels that close to the UK without anyone get a sniff that something is up. Which is why it’s never happened. We know the movement of every Russian submarine. And are tracked and intercepted accordingly We will certainly know the movement of any civilian container vessel.
It would be very simple. Hundreds of thousands of containers are coming to the UK every year. Not hard to use a third nation as the starting point. Russian counter intelligence is not exactly bad.
Look at the salisbury attack, our security services knew nothing about it until too late.
What if they used an arsenal ship with long range drones, cruise, or ballistic missiles?
Seem to recall half the Russian navy turning up in the moray firth unexpectedly 10 – 15 years ago….75 miles from lossie. Sheltering from a storm if i recall. Caused a flap at the time.
That was Ukraine who did that to knock out a significant proportion of the Russian bomber force. The Russians have not demonstrated similar abilities.
Also that attack was with small quadcopter drones used for taking out individual vehicles.
You can’t do something like that with a Shahed drone, of which you’d need multiple ones to take out a single power-station or dam.
That would be a massive undertaking and in reality very hard to do and what would Russia get back, I load of cruise missiles is what, the complete interdiction of its merchant fleet etc.
In reality the best defence is aways being able to hurt your enemies hard. Yes some core infrastructure could do with some ground based defences, but the best investment is in more capabilities to hurt Russia directly..more cruise missiles and more platforms to launch them from. It’s not the nation that launches the first attack that wins, it’s the nation that can keep on beating the crap out of the other nation until it gives up.
For Russia that is really hard to do to the UK because we are long way away and the tyranny of distance matters.. because of NATO as well as having a carrier we can put a lot of resources next do to Russia.
The simple fact is r
Just how many drones would be needed to do what you have just suggested? 10,000 100,000?
It’s a danger of course, but not to the extent that you have just proposed.
The Russians and Iranians have shown that GBAD is a terrible way to guard against sneak drone attacks. A much better way is harden aircraft shelters and most British combat aircraft are permanently inside hardened shelters.
“A much better way is harden aircraft shelters and most British combat aircraft are permanently inside hardened shelters.”
Hi Jim.
Hmmmm, I’m not so sure if it is most. Certainly some. But most? I doubt.
As you know, I’d be all for a big expansion in this area and refurbing the HAS we do have.
Most actually sit empty if you count those on airfields that no longer have RAF Aircraft.
Even if they weren’t launched from a mothership aircraft the Geran-2 drones have a range considerably greater than Kaliningrad to London and are capable of carrying FPV drones (or just a big warhead). Russia produces around 170 Geran-2 drones daily.
The mixed swarms aimed at Israel included cruise and ballistic missiles.
Deterrence is the key. That is why we are looking at acquiring tactical nuclear weapons once more.
We know what to do.
The indictment is that Western Europe has unilaterally lowered its guard.
The barbaric mindless conflict in Europe, creeping ever closer, is the consequence.
Yep the ability to inflict ongoing pain on your enemy is how you first deter and second if needed win wars.. defensive weapons never prevented wars ( they are not deterrents) or give the ability to win wars..only those things that hurt your enemies deter or in the end win.
Even if they weren’t launched from a mothership aircraft, Geran-2 drones have a range considerably greater than Kaliningrad to London and are capable of carrying FPV drones (or just a warhead). Russia produces around 170 Geran-2 drones daily. So in two weeks it produces 2380 drones, about the same number as V-1s hitting London during the entire 9 month campaign. How do you think we’d cope with over 2000 drones coming to London every fortnight? Blitz spirit or brown trousers? While the Geran-2 warheads are smaller than the V1, they are far more accurate.
I agree than money spent on home defence takes away from deployable power. Nevertheless, I think we need to have point defences at critical sites, Faslane, Lossiemouth, Coningsby, GCHQ, PJHQ, etc. Even if it’s just Sky Sabre at the dozen most critical sites, it would be a start. Perhaps laser defences are the right way to start, I don’t know.
There is no way a slow large ish and not stealth basic drone would survive a 1500km journey across NATO land and seas.
Yes Kaliningrad is under very heavy surveillance, would be pretty obvious if they start setting up a large drone strike.
We should never be complacent that we are 100% safe from attack, especially from threats near-peer adversaries like Russia, that has a large military industry
and plenty of platforms to launch missiles and drones from.
IMHO GBAD is for Ballistic missiles and not drones which can intercepted more economically.
Iran is a country to watch, it is possible that the next generation of missiles they design will be able to hit Western Europe.
They are already adapting 100,000 ton oil tankers to assault platforms (INS Makran) the next step is an arsenal ship
loaded with ballistic missiles
**IRIS Makran**
You don’t think drone warfare has recently moved at pace most likely a game changer for the moment, and major players are working on how to counter act it?
ECM and sensor array data fusion AI directed digital C2 linked to task relevant weapon systems will, no doubt, provide a good solution.
But we required good solutions years ago.
Instead we unilaterally disarmed our conventional deterrent so we have war.
Until we restore a credible conventional deterrent that war creeps ever closer to Western Europe.
Defence of the realm is the first duty of central government. That duty has been discharged more in the breach than in the observation.
Perhaps conventional war / deterrence is on hold. Putin has used up most of his old soviet stock of tanks and so forth. If the British army on the Rhine was still there now how secure would it be with advent of drones? Politically / financially we could not of remained in Germany after the Wall came down and Germany has to pull its weight now.
BAOR was part of the very effective conventional deterrent that kept the long peace in Europe 1945-2014. BAOR will not return. The Rhine is too far west.
The question is not whether we can afford a credible conventional deterrent. After all, we could afford £500Bn botching a pointless response to a common cold coronavirus. We can afford a scientifically illiterate, quixotic and, frankly, mad pursuit of ‘net zero’.
The real question is: can we afford not to?
With millions dead, wounded or displaced already as a consequence of failed deterrence and deadly war on continental Europe creeping ever closer to these shores, the answer is clear.
Afraid your arguments lost all credibility as soon as you lurched into the anti-science polemic about coronavirus being a common cold (insulting to everyone on here who lost relatives to Corvid-19) and then net-zero being mad when man-made climate change is obviously happening.
(Even your fellow climate-change deniers can’t deny it’s happening anymore and are now saying it’s being engineered through chem-trails and other fantasies.)
Well said
You have lost all credibility in your anti science tirade. You have parted company both with the United States Energy Secretary and the U.S. Head of the National Institutes of Health both of whom’s positions are backed by an enormous body of science from eminent scientists across the world.
You veer off into, at best, eccentricity when you mention ‘chem trails’, whatever those are. You cannot even spell ‘covid’ and you offer no evidence to support the idea that climate change is man made. Some small part of climate change may very well be attributable to mankind’s activities. However no-one has any real credible evidence as to the extent of that. Solar acrivity, water vapour, global geo-thermal emissions most likely have a far greater impact.
The idea that Britain can affect the world’s climate by offshoring manufacturing, importing solar panels, wind turbines, battery driven electric vehicles, is so stupid as to be beyond belief.
Your comedy routine would be hilarious if I didn’t think you actually meant it and that it wasn’t satire.
Taking your medical advice from a Yank who was an intravenous heroin junkie for over a decade and who claims a worm ate part of his brain… 😂
The current insanity that is the Trump administration is as diametrically opposed to the vast body of peer-reviewed science as is possible. Man-made climate change exists, Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work on this.
Your inability to distinguish between a rhinovirus, (the common cold) and a coronavirus virus (Covid-19) exposes your total ignorance of the subject. Which ironically puts you on par with RFK Jr.
The science has been peer-reviewed and published widely. I don’t believe you don’t know how to use Google. Though that would mean reading rather dry scientific papers, whereas I’m sure you find it’s much easier to watch conspiracy videos on YouTube…
Oh dear!
The common cold is an upper respiratory infection that may be caused by one of more than 200 viruses. Viruses that can trigger colds include rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, and seasonal coronaviruses like SARS CoV 2.
The first description of human coronavirus—a family of viruses that now includes SARS-CoV-2-was published in The BMJ in 1965. The research was led by virologist David Tyrrell at the Common Cold Unit in Wiltshire, England.
Jay Bhattacharya, Head of the U.S. National Insitutes of Health:
‘The typical finding in these (covid) seroprevalence studies is that for people that are under the age of 70, there’s a 0.05% mortality risk. So 99.95% survival after infection for people under 70.’
UK life expectancy: Male 78.6 Female 82.6 (Source ONS)
Covid patients average age of death: Male 81 Female 85 (Source ONS)
Nobel prize winners:
Bob Dylan (Poetry)
Dr Moniz (Lobotomy)
Dr Fibiger (Worms cause cancer)
I think you should have one.
Oh dear, quoting Jay Bhattacharya, the universally condemned economist (not doctor, not a clinician, or medical researcher) who co-authored the conspiracy-manifesto “The Great Barrington Declaration”. It’s no suprise the fruitcake JFK Jr gave him that job, as he he would t get a job anywhere else. And he needed one after being thrown out of Stanford for his views.
Nice try but the readers here are generally knowledgeable and will see through your disingenuous attempt to recategorise all respiratory virus as ‘common colds’.
The readers here are generally knowledgeable. You are not one of them.
Jay Bhattacharya studied at Stanford, simultaneously, a medical degree and a doctorate in economics.
He earned his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1997 and completed his Ph.D. in economics, econometrics, and health economics in 2000.
His doctoral dissertation was entitled, “Lifetime returns to specialization in medicine”
Don’t worry we have mad jack starmer, he will put his nice red gloves on and that will put poohtin Ina very bad situation …. He might even think we will unleash the fleet…..
Thin end of the wedge, I thinks, folks!
Yes, I think so. It’s a deliberate provocation to test the NATO and EU response. Putin will continue until a high profile property is damaged or someone is killed. NATO / EU will respond by sending pilots over Ukraine and / or Polish / NATO troops to man surface to air batteries. Putin will then be able to justify his domestic message that Russia is being attacked by NATO. Tricky. Still, it’s a sign that his Ukraine offensive is not going as fast as he would like. Perhaps we could ask Australia to help with a flight of interceptors. Throw a curve ball.
Paul, the day Putin invaded Ukraine was the beginning of a general Russian expansion west. Since the outbreak of this war, many European countries have attempted to ignore the consequences, whilst others have been proactive in support of Ukraine. The horrible truth is that Europe is at war with Russia, and it’s been a slow burner up to now, but the objective remains undiminished. I don’t believe we need to run for the cellar just yet. Putin won’t want a direct conflict but prefers to worry NATO to the point that military spending is rapidly expanded, causing real civilian hardship through social spending cuts and resultant political unrest. Currently, the UK is on the verge of going cap in hand to the IMF, and France is experiencing financial and leadership turmoil. The rest of Europe is not coping well either, so why does Putin need to march anywhere? What we face is a perfect storm with NATO demanding spending increases as social fiscal pressure erodes nation’s ability to afford its defences.
Congratulations on falling for the Russian. dezinformatsiya that “the UK is on the verge of going cap in hand to the IMF”….
It’s not, even the IMF has dismissed this.
Again well said Spock, the comments on here get more ludicrous daily.
Russia may be at war with NATO but the day NATO actually goes to war with Russia is the day Putin has mad a fatal error. Europe NATO alone essentially encompasses 23% of the world’s wealth and power. Russia something like 2%. Putin is very aware all he can do is nibble at the edges.
He is waiting for one of two possible win states for Russia.
1) Europe to be overwhelmed by far right nationalist movements, that will essentially destroy NATO from within and leave him with a large number of smaller isolated nations he can mop up.. essentially he wants the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland to go ultra nationalist and sell the smaller Eastern European countries down the river.
2) china sparks off a world war and he can take advantage of essentially a mass attack on the western world.
But Russia just having a proper shooting war with NATO on its own back is a death sentence for Russia and Putin.
I think it’s helpful to unpick ‘general westward expansion’. I see 3 layers. The inner layer was created when the Ukrainian orthodox church became autocephalous. Russia is synonymous with Russian orthodoxy lead by the Moscow patriarch. It was this event which from Moscow’s perspective broke the hierarchy in which the Kyiv patriarch reported to Moscow. It legitimised his ‘protection’ of ethnic Russians ( people who still wanted to attend Russian orthodox churches in Ukraine). It defined Ukraine as a distinct nation, reversing some 400 years of Russian domination. Putin won’t talk to Zelensky because in doing so he would accept the existence of Ukraine as a sovereign nation. The next ‘layer’ is what Putin sees as his historic destiny to restore the Russian empire – Ukraine + the Baltic states, Crimea, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, maybe even bits of Poland: hence Poland’s high defence spending. The outer layer is the cold war layer of Soviet influence – Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia – countries still buying Russian gas. It’s interesting to listen to Lavrov who is on record as saying that ‘European philosophy is going nowhere’. They believe that their culture rooted in autocracy, communism and state controlled Orthodoxy has the will and perseverance to defeat western liberal democracies who, they believe, lack unity, common purpose, will power and faith. Looking at the Trump, Epstein, Mandleson shenanigans they could have a point. I the UK will need the IMF, but ‘ early retirement, long lunch hour’ France might, and is more vulnerable to social unrest. Latest UK polling shows people are more concerned about immigration than the economy. No doubt this fire is being stoked by Reform – it doesn’t rain but what it pours. Pray for our leaders and our parliament. As Russel Crowe said in the Gladiator colosseum scene…..whatever comes out of that door, we stand a better chance of survival if we stick together. Hope springs eternal 🙂
Putin testing nato. Difficult to tolerate an ongoing threat of drone incursion.
Putin has ordered yet another large scale military exercise (“Zapad”) near the Polish/Belarus border close to the Kaliningrad Suwałki Gap. This will commence on Thursday and will be a practice run for seizing the Gap and cutting NATO land lines of communication with the Baltic states. Deploying large numbers of drones against Poland last night is Putin testing the response.
This is a clear challenge to NATO and may have been agreed with Trump during Putin’s extremely suspicious 40minute private conversation with Trump in Anchorage – whilst the two of them were alone in the presidential limo.
Putin has already issued his customary declaration that he has “no intention” of invading any more countries in Eastern Europe. Exactly what he said just before the “Special Military Operation” against Ukraine in 2022 – which also started with a large-scale military exercise in Belarus
Meanwhile Trump is busy destroying the global economy with his stupid tariffs, while deploying the National Guard against his own citizens in Democrat cities such as Washington DC and Chicago. Last night’s attack on a NATO country should trigger an Article 5 response. Expect Trump to say that it’s a European problem.
I beieve this is a pin. Poland isn’t going to put boots on the ground in Ukraine and by ramping up the threat, Putin is ensuring a mindset where Poland will think twice before sending troops to help the Baltics too, which would be a real fracturing of NATO. Once Poland is afraid for its own security it won’t spend its money on bulking out NATO, rather on ensuring that it can protect itself.
Trump has made NATO less credible for its own membership. Will NATO help us if we are under attack? Consider the Sky Wargame podcast, where America didn’t help the UK and nor did the large European powers. That’s the way we view our primary alliance in a fiction that was praised for its realism. Britains mantra is NATO first, so I hope we rally the politicos to Poland’s side. If we are not there for our allies, our allies will not be there for us.
To a certain extent, it’s OK for Poland as part of NATO to essentially spend spend spend on its own soil as part of NATO it has a boarder with Russia so anything Poland does is a threat to Russia. It’s places like the UK becoming ultra focused on home defence over wider geostrategic defence policy that is the issue, because the UK is 1500km from any Russian territory.
NATO should assume that as per what happened with Ukraine, the exercise is a prelude to actually seizing the Suwałki Gap (probably Lithuanian rather than Polish territory being seized). Reinforcement of the area should begin immediately.
That would be a sensible, prudent move that cannot be seen as escalatory by Russia and twisted.
Meanwhile in the UK – have we started growing oot announcing our force numbers yet? and I don’t mean replacing the cuts of the last 15 years
Poland has now activated NATO Article 4 to determine if this was a deliberate act by Russia.
Send some armed drones into Russian Airspace, or better yet strike the bases they were launched from.
I’d think there will be strong words and unity from most NATO nations in response, but I think you need to hurt Russia to get Putin to notice.
And I don’t think going all John Wayne bomb Russia will help, NATO should be more subtle.
NATO need to retaliate sub freshhold, Grey Zone, deniable, that hurts them.
Openly bombing Russian targets in retaliation is a stupid escalation that plays right into Putins narrative.
In the Cold War, the US and UK regularly violated Russian airspace. With manned aircraft.
Did Russia then launch airstrikes in retaliation?
No.
Would we be outraged if Russia did that now?
Yes.
If Russian Drones target and kill Poles at Polish targets then yes, retaliate.
Till then.
Cyber them. Wreck their networks ( if that’s even possible with Putin using typewriters )
Use Ukraine, as we are no doubt doing, as a proxy to target Russian assets, commanders, conduct sabotage.
We all know our intell and SF are assisting.
Their “research vessel” is fiddling with cables? Sink it.
From below the waves. Sorry guv, your ship must have just blown up.
Shadow fleet drags anchors. Sink.
Doing nothing when pinched and slapped by a bully only encourages. But if that bully wants a fight and you openly square up, you have war.
I don’t think NATO opinion is for that. I’m certainly.
Not by strength. By guile.
NATO needs to be clever, not provoked into a red card like Diego Costa.
💯
Yep.. go full Cold War on Russia..
1) attack indirectly all its African interests
2) any Russian ship doing the slightest possible dodgy thing in national waters of a NATO nation capture and impound
3) for every drone incursion into NATO airspace send 2 drones to do an ISTAR incursion into Russia. Airspace ( send over all the watchkeeper drones for this very purpose as no one will give a shit of Russia gets a piss on and shoots them down)
4) every action of Russia should have a larger response from NATO..hammer some Russian undersea infrastructure with by dragging wit a merchant ship.
4) every Russian sub that moves in the North Sea or Norwegian Sea that is submerged should be having sonar bouys dropped on its head.. with frigates undertaking to active pings in the area till all the Russian sonar operators are off sick with stress.
5) sod good seamanship, every Russian naval vessel transiting a NATO strait (as they are allowed) should have a NATO patrol boat 10meters off its stern, with regular navigation horns as it them moves to past the Russian vessel, then slows down so the Russian vessel has to pass, then back to the stern and when ready rinse and repeat.. give every Russian navy captain navigational conniption’s every time they have to pass a NATO strait.
Essentially make it hell for the Russia military to operate outside of Russia.
There needs to be a dusting off of the Reagan Doctrine..it worked to destroy the USSR and it would most definitely destroy Putins Russia which is but a shadow of the USSR.
On the cables point, Russia, to it’s advantage, has few such undersea cables due to geography.
We are far more vulnerable.
Those in the Far East are the obvious examples, linking Vladivostock with the Kamachatkha/Petropavlovsk.
And the USN/NSA has played with those before.
You’d need agents within to dig them up.
No easy task.
Hi Daniele
I’m glad that seasoned posters such as yourself have seen the light – and now realise that we have to stand up to Putin and organise a measured military response to this blatant provocation.
Putin would not have sent a flotilla of drones into Polish airspace unless he had calculated that Trump, being a classic bully, would crap out and do nothing. Instead of sensibly reinforcing Europe with 50,000 boots on the ground and issuing an ultimtum to Russia.
I’ve been saying for months that we need to sink a few Russian ships mapping our cables, shoot down the Russian Blackjacks probing out airspace over Lossiemouth and subject Russia to a prolonged cyberassault. I usually get cowards like Jim and his lightweight bumchums etc suggesting it would start WW3. I case anybody hasn’t noticed, WW3 started in 2022 with the invasion of Ukraine. Taiwan will be next – which will open the second front and which will definately get Trump’s attention.
Hi David.
Well my friend, you know we think slightly differently on this. I agree there needs to be a stronger response.
But I suggested examples in the Grey Zone. Messages without open hostilities.
Openly shooting down Russian LRA around the UKADR isn’t a great example! 😉
More subtle mate…
Excellently put.
Nuclear isotopes used on the UK
Biological weapon ysed on the UK
Cables damaged
Suspicious fire on a shipbuilder
DoS attacks
Attempted attacks on an RAF plane and T45
Subversive activity in the Baltic States
Attempted assination of a German industrialist
Attacks on NATO infrastructure
– Czech Republic ammo store
– subsea cables etc
Arson on NATO soil.
NATO need Russia to understand no more; Russia understands one thing, death.
We need to respond to Russian aggression by killing their agents, deniable attacks on their dark oil fleet – just sink them.
Destruction of Russian planes that enter NATO ADZs.
And let’s blow up their oil pipelines just for sh!tscand giggles.
Money is the thing senior Russians understand.
Putin is obviously testing NATO, the context being that all of the major NATO countries have weak or chaotic or distracted governments. A failure to react now would be to signal we are not serious and be the end of any deterrence we currently have. I think NATO should, and I have thought this for some time, extend a no fly zone up to the Dnieper River meaning that all right bank (western) Ukraine becomes a protected zone. This would enable NATO forward air defence, avoid over flying Russian territory and most importantly signal our determination to prevent further aggression. Putin must not be allowed to act without consequences being imposed on him.
It’s time Ukraine started ‘special operations’ in the North Sea/Atlantic every time a Russian Bear and it’s Flanker escorts do a recon.
Blue Shirt Guy raises an interesting point.
We have Ukrainian minesweepers working out of UK Naval Bases – let’s use them to interdict Russian / suspect flagged vessels.
In addition to which we could home an F16 flight to take on Russian Bears and have them shot out the sky.
The Bears are irreplaceable and included many parts manufactured in… Ukraine – the two nations are in a state of war, let’s facilitate that war and kill Russians and their platforms without declaring war. Russian would learn to stay away and in the meantime, expel EVERY Russian ‘diplomat’ in the UK along with their commercial officers and all families; simply start making ordinary Russians pay for the murder and mayhem they have unleashed on innocent people.
There are suggestions from some ONSINT analysts, reported by the BBC, that the drones were decoys.
The suggestion being that the Russians are testing NATO response to their provocation. A very dangerous and reckless strategy if that is indeed the case… Wars can start because of miss calculations the worst example being WW1 when a serious misunderstanding between the British and Germans hardened German resolve and lost the chance for peace. While that was a diplomatic misunderstanding, operational misunderstands are very possible.
These are dangerous times with Putin willing to take reckless risks. It seems that deterrence is not what it used to be…
Cheers CR
Dutch F35A’s stationed in Poland were also involved during last nights events, shooting down several drones. Every NATO member could use some exercise like this.