Russia and Ukraine: 1)(Updated) NATO scrambles jets to shoot down Russian drones in Poland, raising fears of war spillover; 2) Russia launches largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s capital

1)(Updated) NATO scrambles jets to shoot down Russian drones in Poland, raising fears of war spillover

Published September 10, 2025

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Claudia Ciobanu, Illia Novikov And Rafal Niedzielski, September 10, 2025

Poland says it shot down Russian drones that violated its airspace during strikes on Ukraine

Firefighters secure parts of a damaged UAV shot down by Polish authorities at a site in Czosnowka near Biala Podlaska, Poland, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Piotr Pyrkosz)

Multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland in what European officials described Wednesday as a deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down. A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance confronted a potential threat in its airspace.

The incursion, which occurred during a wave of strikes by the Kremlin on Ukraine, and the NATO response swiftly raised fears that the war could spill over — a fear that has been growing in Europe as Russia steps up its attacks and peace efforts go nowhere.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that “lost their course” because they were jammed.

However, several European leaders said they believed the incursion amounted to an intentional expansion of Russia’s assault against Ukraine.

“Russia’s war is escalating, not ending,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels. “What (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game changer,” and it should result in stronger sanctions.

Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in NATO territory.

Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday.

It was not immediately clear how many drones were involved. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but he said information was still being gathered. Polish authorities said nine crash sites were found, with some of them hundreds of kilometers from the border.

“There are definitely no grounds to suspect that this was a course correction mistake or the like,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament. “These drones were very clearly put on this course deliberately.”

Dutch fighter jets came to Poland’s aid and intercepted some drones. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski later thanked the Dutch government “for the magnificent performance of Dutch pilots in neutralizing” the drones.

NATO met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.

Poland says some drones came from Belarus

Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and the last around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Earlier, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace.

“What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus,” Tusk said in parliament.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its overnight strikes targeted Ukraine’s military-industrial complex in the western regions of the country — which border Poland — with no planned targets on Polish territory.

In an unusual message of outreach, the ministry said it was ready to hold consultations with Poland’s Defense Ministry.

Belarusian Maj. Gen. Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the country’s general staff and first deputy defense minister, appeared to try to put some distance between his country and the incursion.

In an online statement, he said that as Russia and Ukraine traded drone strikes overnight, Belarusian air defense forces tracked “drones that lost their course” after they were jammed, adding that Belarusian forces warned their Polish and Lithuanian counterparts about “unidentified aircraft” approaching their territory.

A house was hit in the village of Wyryki in the Lublin region near the Ukrainian border, Mayor Bernard Blaszczuk told the TVP Info television news channel. The roof was severely damaged, but no one was hurt.

Rattled NATO members vow support

NATO air defenses supported Poland in what spokesman Col. Martin O’Donnell called “the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace.” That included the Dutch F-35 fighter jets that intercepted drones, according to Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans.

The alliance “is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace,” O’Donnell said.

Tusk told parliament that consultations took place under Article 4 of the NATO treaty — a clause that allows countries to call for urgent discussions with their allies. The consultations happened Wednesday at a previously planned meeting. They do not automatically lead to any action under Article 5, which is NATO’s collective security guarantee.

Mark Lyall Grant, U.K. national security adviser from 2015 to 2017, said the incursion was an obvious escalation of Russia’s war in Ukraine, but there was not yet enough evidence to say it was an attack on a NATO member.

But many European leaders expressed deep concern, including those in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that are the NATO members most nervous about Russian aggression.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it an “extremely dangerous precedent for Europe” and called for Russia to “feel the consequences.”

“Moscow always tests the limits of what is possible and, if it does not encounter a strong response, remains at a new level of escalation,” he said.

By midday in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump’s only public comments about the incursion was a short post on social media: “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!”

Trump was set to speak later Wednesday to Polish President Karol Nawrocki, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said the incident underscored the failure of NATO member states to accurately assess the threat posed by Russia and properly prepare for war.

“NATO states, even front line ones, have clearly not prepared for war of the type that is happening now,” he said in his Substack newsletter.

Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.

In August, Poland’s defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation.

In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish airspace on its way to a target in western Ukraine. And in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.

Russian attacks hit central and western Ukraine

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missile overnight.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.

One person was killed and at least five wounded, while several homes and businesses were damaged, according to local officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in its morning report Wednesday that it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.

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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland. Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Vanessa Gera in Milan, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Danica Kirka in London and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

2) Russia launches largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s capital

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Samya Kullab, September 8, 2025

Russia hit Ukraine’s capital with drone and missiles Sunday in the largest aerial attack since the war began, killing four people across the country and damaging a key government building.

Russia attacked with 810 drones and decoys, Ukraine’s air force said, adding it shot down 747 drones and four missiles.

Associated Press reporters saw a plume of smoke rising from the roof of Kyiv’s government headquarters. It was not immediately clear if the smoke was the result of a direct hit or debris, which would mark an escalation in Russia’s air campaign, which has so far spared government buildings in the city centre.

The building is the home of Ukraine’s Cabinet and its ministers. Police blocked access to the building as fire trucks and ambulances arrived.

Yuriy Ihnat, an air force spokesperson, confirmed to The Associated Press that Sunday’s attack was the largest Russian drone strike since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia also launched 13 missiles. Hits from nine missiles and 54 drones were recorded at 33 locations across Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that four people were killed and 44 wounded. He said he spoke on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron about the attack.

“Together with France, we are preparing new measures to strengthen our defense,” Zelenskyy said.

Marcon earlier on Sunday accused Russia of “striking indiscriminately” and said Moscow “is locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also condemned the attack. “These cowardly strikes show that Putin believes he can act with impunity. He is not serious about peace. Now, more than ever, we must stand firm in our support for Ukraine and its sovereignty,” Starmer said in a statement.

Multiple locations hit in Kyiv

In the Ukrainian capital, the attack killed two people and wounded 20 others, according to city officials.

Those killed were a mother and her 3-month-old child, whose bodies were dug out of the rubble, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. At least 10 locations in Kyiv were damaged, he added. Direct drone hits struck a nine-story residential building in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district and a four-story residential building in Darnytskyi district.

“I just have no more words left to express what I feel towards Russia,” said Olha, a 77-year-old Kyiv resident whose apartment was damaged. She didn’t give her last name. “Although I’m an ethnic Russian myself, from outside Moscow. And I’ve never thought my people would be capable of this.”

Zelenskyy called for sanctions on Russia and for strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses.

“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have started long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” he said. “The world can force the Kremlin criminals to stop killing; only political will is needed.”

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted a video of herself inside the damaged government building, where she said a fire covering 800 square meters (8,600 square feet) was put out.

“For the first time since the start of full-scale invasion, Russians struck our government headquarters in the centre of Kyiv,” she said.

“It looks like Russia is not seeking peace and is not ready for negotiations. We call our partners to help close our sky. Let’s strengthen sanctions against Russia. Let’s create the security guarantees system that will help stop the enemy,” she said.

Russia insists it targeted military infrastructure

The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday that it used “high-precision weapons” and drones to strike drone assembly and storage sites, military air bases in central, southern and eastern Ukraine, an industrial facility and a logistics facility on the outskirts of Kyiv.

The ministry said that “all designated objects were hit” and claimed that “no strikes were carried out on other objects within the borders of Kyiv,” in what could be a reference to the damaged government building.

Sunday’s attack is the second mass Russian drone and missile attack to target Kyiv in the span of two weeks, as hopes for peace talks wane.

It comes after European leaders pressed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to work to end the war after 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends.

Zelenskyy has said he is ready to meet Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.

Moscow has repeatedly objected to any Western troop deployments to Ukraine and pushed back against a Putin-Zelenskyy summit, saying lower-level talks must take place first.

Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery in Russia

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted a total of 100 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Azov Sea between 8 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

Most were downed over the Belgorod, Voronezh and Krasnodar regions near the border with Ukraine, according to the statement.

In the Krasnodar region, falling drone debris sparked a brief fire at an oil refinery, local authorities said. In the Belgorod and the Voronezh regions, two people were injured, officials said.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said Sunday that its troops seized the village of Khoroshe in the Dnipropetrovsk region. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine.