US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, retired General Keith Kellogg, is traveling to Poland this week and then will continue on to Ukraine, as Russian drones drifted westward on Wednesday into NATO territory.
“Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine, was en route to Poland when the Russian drone incursion occurred,” an official told CNN. Another source noted that Kellogg is expected to visit Ukraine in the coming days.
Polish forces, supported by other NATO allies, engaged with at least 19 Russian drones over Polish territory on Wednesday, shooting down 4 of them. Fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the UAVs.
US Army Colonel Martin O’Donnell, the spokesman for Supreme Allied Commander Europe, pointed out that this was the first time that NATO aircraft had repelled potential threats in its own airspace since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion into Ukraine.
Poland then invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, a move that signals a serious threat to a member’s security. The violation drew immediate diplomatic reactions and placed a spotlight on the US president’s foreign policy approach.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that NATO allies were dealing with a “large-scale provocation” by Moscow through the violation of Polish airspace and urged the US and its allies to “continue to impose greater costs in the form of additional punishing sanctions, especially on their oil production.”
In his nightly address on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky admonished Western leaders for “lack of action” over Russia’s intrusion into Polish airspace.
“There have been more than enough statements, but so far there has been a lack of action. The Russians are testing the limits of what is possible. They are testing the reaction. They are recording how the armed forces of NATO countries act,” Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said the US stands by its allies in the face of these airspace violations and that this aggression into NATO territory will not stand.
“We stand with our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory,” he said.