Rubio Warns of ‘Highly Escalatory Move’ If Russian Drone Incursion into Poland Was Intentional

WASHINGTON DC – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the recent Russian drone incursion into Poland was an “unacceptable and dangerous development” but that the US has not yet made a final determination on whether it was intentional.

Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing on a trip to the Middle East, Rubio confirmed that the drones were “intentionally launched,” but stressed that the key question is “whether the drones were targeted to go into Poland specifically.”

“There’s still a lot of gathering happening. In respect of it shouldn’t have happened – I don’t think anybody’s happy about seeing it happen,” he said. “You saw NATO respond to it appropriately. We don’t want to see it happen again,” the top diplomat emphasized.

Few more days needed

Rubio then added: “We think it’s an unacceptable, unfortunate, and dangerous development in this regard. I think it’ll take a few more days for everybody to fully – the drones were intentionally launched.”

If evidence proves that was the case, Rubio warned it would be a “highly escalatory move.”

“If that’s the case – that the evidence leads us there – then obviously that’ll be a highly escalatory move. There are a number of other possibilities as well.  

Other Topics of Interest

Hungary Says It Has Deal With Ukraine on Minority Rights, Ties It to EU Accession Talks

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced that Hungary and Ukraine have reached a “comprehensive agreement” to broaden language, cultural, educational and political rights for roughly 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, following several weeks of expert-level talks. Kyiv has pledged to write the agreed measures into Ukrainian law, reflecting them in the EU accession action plan. Budapest indicated it would support opening the first negotiating cluster for Ukraine.

“But I think we’d like to have all the facts and consult with our allies before we make specific determinations,” Rubio concluded.

This comes as Poland’s leaders have contradicted US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the incident may have been a “mistake,” with Polish officials insisting the incursion was a “deliberate and coordinated attack.”

The US Ambassador to NATO has stated that the US will defend “every inch” of NATO territory, and the alliance is planning to increase air defenses on its eastern flank.

Hard work of peace

On his trip, which includes a visit to Israel, Rubio stated that the US-Israeli relationship “continues to be strong.” He emphasized that the administration’s priority is for the conflict to end, all 48 hostages to be released “all at once,” and for Hamas to be defeated.

“I wouldn’t call it leverage. I do think we have influence, I think because we’ve worked on so many things together,” he said.

Rubio added that a key part of his discussions would be to understand the impact of recent events, including an Israeli strike in Qatar, on the ability to achieve these goals in “short order.”

Rubio said that despite the recent tensions, the overarching goals remain the same. “There is still a group called Hamas, which is an evil group that still has weapons and is terrorizing; there are still 48 hostages that deserve to be released immediately, all at once; and there is still the hard work ahead of, once this ends, of rebuilding Gaza in a way that provides people a quality of life that they all want.”

He added, “Who’s going to do that? And who’s going to pay for it? And who’s going to be in charge of it? So all that work is still there to be done.”