The Polish government has evidence that the recent Russian drone attack on Poland was a deliberate provocation, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digitalization Krzysztof Gawkowski said.
Several Russian drones entered Polish airspace on Wednesday during an attack on Ukraine, prompting NATO jets to scramble and shoot them down.
“Russia deliberately attacked Poland – we have facts and evidence to prove it. It was a planned provocation, coordinated with a disinformation campaign,” Gawkowski wrote on X.
He added that any deviation from this information only strengthens the Russian narrative.
“Every word that undermines the fact that we were dealing with a deliberate attack supports Russian disinformation. Disinformation is also an element of war,” Gawkowski said.
Russia’s drone strike on Polish territory should serve as a warning for all to take a more active stance, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (AFU) Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky said on Facebook following talks with Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces Gen. Wiesław Kukuła.
Syrsky noted that he briefed his Polish counterpart on the operational situation at the front and the current needs of Ukraine’s Defense Forces.
“We also discussed other issues of mutual interest, in particular in the context of Russia’s drone attack on the territories of Ukraine and Poland,” he wrote.
He stressed that “another act of aggression from Moscow only reinforces the conclusion: there is a need to invest more in the effective security of NATO’s eastern flank, and in the security of our country, which is the first to repel the strikes of the Russian aggressor.”
Syrsky expressed confidence that the attack would “serve as a signal for everyone to adopt a more active position.”
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that the Russian drones that violated Polish airspace earlier this week could have done so unintentionally – a comment sharply rebuked by Poland and its European allies as a dangerous misreading of the situation.
“It could have been a mistake,” Trump told reporters, adding that he was “not happy about anything to do with the whole situation, but hopefully that’s going to come to an end.”
The remarks stand in stark contrast to the strong condemnation from European leaders, who have called the incident a “deliberate provocation” and a “new, serious escalation” of the conflict.
Poland’s Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski, directly challenged Trump’s assessment, posting on social media: “No, that wasn’t a mistake.”
Polish and European officials emphasized the long duration and deep penetration of the incursion, noting that drones flew as far as 300 miles (485 km) into Polish territory.