Poland temporarily closed several airports last Wednesday (10SEP25) following a drone alert. The closure affected the country’s busiest airport, Warsaw Chopin, national carrier LOT’s passenger and cargo hub, interrupting air traffic for hours. Airports in Lublin and Rzeszow were also closed due to approaching drones. The latter is considered a hub for supplying Ukraine with weapons and equipment. The closures have been lifted meanwhile.
Flagrant security violation
According to Polish authorities, 19 drones entered Polish airspace, at least three of which were drowned by air defense. Specialists identified them as Russia built and operated. Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke of a flagrant violation of his country’s security by Russia and requested consultations under Article 4 of the NATO Treaty.
This NATO Article provides consultations when a NATO member state feels threatened from outside. It reads: “The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.” Following the consultations, airspace surveillance over the affected NATO territory, i.e., Poland and the neighboring Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, will be stepped up.
Closure of airspace
Since Friday (12SEP25) tensions between NATO and Russia have increased because in the direct geographical neighborhood of these states, Russia and its all, Belarus have started large-scale joint military exercises. For security reasons, Poland has closed its entire airspace over the eastern part of the country, bordering Belarus and has deployed 40,000 additional armed forces to secure the eastern border..
Shortly after the Polish drone alerts, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (Conservatives) spoke of a “serious threat to Europe that endangers peace.” He added that the drone swarms sent by Putin into the national airspace of NATO member Poland “represent a new level of aggression.”
“Illegal, dangerous, unacceptable”
Following these statements, the Russian ambassador was summoned to the German Foreign Ministry and warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions were “illegal, dangerous and unacceptable. NATO stands firmly united to defend the territory of the alliance and their member’s security,” the German government told Ambassador, Sergey Y. Nechaev. In response to the drone alert, the Berlin government has upped the Bundeswehr’s participation in protecting NATO’s eastern flank. For the surveillance of the airspace over Poland, two additional Eurofighter jets will be based at Rostock-Laage Airport near the Baltic Sea and close to the polish border.
Provocations are increasing
France also summoned the Russian ambassador to Paris following the Polish drone alert. On channel Inter Radio France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated that he had told the Russian diplomat that Moscow must immediately stop testing and intimidating any NATO member state with ever new provocations.
Western security experts unanimously agree that the drone attack on Poland was by far the most serious violation of a NATO member state’s airspace by Russia to date, threatening its territorial integrity. Previously, tankers acting on Russia’s behalf had repeatedly destroyed underwater communication cables with their anchors, running across the seabed of the Baltic Sea. Some of the ships were confiscated by Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish authorities and detained. Their crew are now being prosecuted for sabotage.
In addition, “disposable agents” are increasingly recruited by the Russian secret service, to carry out acts of sabotage, like placing explosive devices on board Western cargo planes, as evidenced by the failed arson attack of DHL aircraft
(https://cargoforwarder.eu/2025/05/04/moscow-orchestrated-integrator-attacks/).
Hybrid war
Also, the GPS air navigation systems are increasingly disrupted in a targeted manner with flights across the Baltic states, Finland, and Poland mostly affected. This was also the case on 08SEP2025, when EU Commission President von der Leyen flew from Poland to Bulgaria whereby the GPS system on her flight ceased to function completely. “We have long been in a hybrid war with Russia, with ever new provocations and increasing intensity, as the drones over Poland evidence once again,” a leading security expert told CargoForwarder Global.
