STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Officials in Poland and with NATO say they're awaiting results of a military assessment before deciding on a response to more than a dozen Russian drones that flew into Polish airspace early Wednesday.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Some of the drones were shot down, and it was the first time in the history of NATO that alliance fighter jets engaged enemy targets in allied airspace.
INSKEEP: NPR Berlin correspondent Rob Schmitz is on the line. Hi there, Rob.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Hey, Steve.
INSKEEP: What are you hearing?
SCHMITZ: So Polish authorities say this morning that they found the wreckage of at least nine drones. They were all Shahed-style attack drones that Russia uses in its attacks on Ukrainian cities. A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office in Lublin city near Ukraine says that all of the drones found so far were unarmed so-called dummy drones, which are used by Russia to fool Ukrainian air defenses.
INSKEEP: OK. So let's think this through now. We're talking about a NATO ally that was attacked.
SCHMITZ: Right.
INSKEEP: Poland's government invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, not the most famous one. This calls on all member states to hold an emergency meeting if one of them is threatened. This is not the more famous Article 5, which calls on a member state response...
SCHMITZ: Right.
INSKEEP: ...As if they're all attacked. But this still represents an escalation. How is NATO responding? What does it mean to hold a meeting?
SCHMITZ: Yeah. So NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, after the meeting, came out and spoke to reporters yesterday, and he said that NATO's response was swift. It was decisive. NATO fighter jets were quickly scrambled. Rutte said the response was exactly what NATO forces spend much of their time preparing for. He said this incident should remind European member states to invest more in their militaries. And he also had this message for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARK RUTTE: To Putin, I mean, my message is clear - stop the war in Ukraine. Stop the escalating war, which he is now basically mounting on innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure. Stop violating allied airspace and know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant and that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.
INSKEEP: OK. He says, to Putin, this is my message. Has Putin responded?
SCHMITZ: Not directly. And Russia's response here has been a little confusing. Early on, a general from Russian ally Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian forces have been holding military exercises recently, called this whole episode an accident, and he said it was caused by errant drones that had encountered electronic interference. Later on, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the drones, but he used the opportunity to accuse European leaders of leveling accusations against Russia on what he called a daily basis. And then Russia's defense ministry finally weighed in, saying it had not planned to hit any targets in Poland and suggested that Poland was out of range of its drones, which is not true.
INSKEEP: Well, if the drones got there and got shot down, clearly not true.
SCHMITZ: (Laughter) That's right.
INSKEEP: So a variety of explanations or at least statements. How are people taking all of this in Poland?
SCHMITZ: Yeah, I think the situation is pretty tense. You know, there's a lot of history between Poland and Russia and a fair amount of bad blood that continues to this day. In recent years, Russia has launched a variety of hybrid attacks on Poland, including weaponizing migrants and busing them to the Belarus-Polish border. Poland has spent billions on building a new fence, on putting up military barriers. It even pulled itself out of an international treaty that bans land mines. Poland is now spending nearly 5% of its GDP on its military. No other NATO member spends that much of its GDP on defense. So it's clear Poland is preparing to defend itself.
INSKEEP: NPR's Rob Schmitz, thanks so much.
SCHMITZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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