Tusk tells Polish parliament that military conflict with Russia closer than at any time since WWII

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned the Polish parliament that the country is closer to military conflict with Russia than it has been at any point since World War II, following an unprecedented breach of its airspace by Russian drones overnight.

Addressing the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, on Wednesday, Tusk said that the violations of Polish airspace had begun at 11.30pm on Tuesday and had continued until 6:30am, and had involved 19 drones, four of which were shot down by Polish air defences.

Tusk also said that, after discussing the matter with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, Poland would be asking its NATO allies to invoke Article 4 of the NATO convention, requesting a formal consultation with the alliance following a threat to the country’s “territorial integrity, political independence or security”.

Article 4 has only been invoked seven times since the creation of NATO in 1949, and was used following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the BBC reported.

Following Tusk’s address to lawmakers, a spokesperson for Poland’s Interior Ministry announced that seven intercepted drones had been recovered, including an unidentified object that is currently being analysed. Some of the drones reportedly flew as far as 300km into Polish airspace.

The Polish Foreign Ministry has summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires Andrey Ordash, RBC reported, who, it added, had already cast doubt on the Polish authorities’ version of events, insisting that “no evidence has been presented that these drones are of Russian origin.”