French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot summoned France’s Russian ambassador on Friday morning over the incursion of Russian drones into Poland on Wednesday – following an announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron that France will send two state-of-the-art fighter jets to defend Polish airspace.
As per Le Monde, Barrot told French media that Russia’s ambassador to France, Aleksey Meshkov, would be summoned on Friday morning over Russia’s “absolutely unacceptable” violation of Polish airspace on Wednesday.
At least 19 drones crossed the Polish border in the early hours of Wednesday morning, some via Belarus. Although stray drones have entered NATO airspace on occasion since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the number and behaviour of drones has led many European leaders to believe that their intrusion was deliberate.
Moscow denied any knowledge of the incident, falsely claiming that the Russian drones which allegedly entered Poland did not have sufficient range to do so.
Barrot said that he would tell the Russian ambassador that France “will not be intimidated.”
“Whether intentional or not, whether accidental or not, this is very serious, this is absolutely unacceptable. This is a deliberate strategy by Russia to intimidate us, to test us,” he said.
France is not the only European country to have summoned their respective Russian ambassadors over the incident – others including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic have also done so.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France would also offer more material support in the form of three French warplanes. The Rafale fighter jets will be deployed to Poland to protect NATO’s eastern flank, as per Politico.
Also on Thursday, the Czech Republic announced the deployment of Czech troops and a specially modified drone interceptor helicopter to Poland.
The Kremlin, which has been delaying its participation in peace talks with Ukraine for weeks, said on Friday that they are now “on pause” – and blamed Europe for “hindering” them, as per Reuters.
“The security of the European continent is our top priority. We will not yield to Russia’s growing intimidation,” Macron added.