Poland rejects Trump’s suggestion that Russia’s drone raid “might have been a mistake”

Warsaw — Poland’s most senior officers on Friday dismissed President Trump’s suggestion {that a} main Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace might have been a mistake by Vladimir Putin’s navy.

“We’d additionally want that the drone assault on Poland was a mistake. Nevertheless it wasn’t. And we all know it,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk mentioned in a message posted on social media.

Polish authorities mentioned that they had recovered elements of 17 Russian-made drones, which fell with out inflicting any accidents or main harm within the east of the nation on Wednesday.

Polish and allied NATO fighter jets from Holland have been scrambled to intercept the drones — a primary such response to aerial Russian navy incursions into NATO airspace since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine greater than three years in the past.

Poland’s comparatively new, conservative President Karol Nawrocki, in a social media publish on Thursday, referred to as the Russian drone incursion “nothing greater than an try to check our capabilities and response. It was an try to check the mechanisms of motion inside NATO and our capacity to reply.”

Different European capitals and the European Union additionally labelled the raid a Russian take a look at of the NATO alliance’s resolve within the face of Russia’s ongoing struggle in Ukraine, however Mr. Trump steered in any other case.

“It might have been a mistake,” he informed journalists late Thursday when requested in regards to the incident. A day earlier, Mr. Trump issued a quick response to the incident, saying on his Reality Social platform: “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Right here we go!”

The White Home didn’t provide any clarification of Mr. Trump’s remarks.

Beforehand, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker mentioned in a social media publish that the U.S. stood “by our NATO Allies within the face of those airspace violations and can defend each inch of NATO territory.”

Poland’s Deputy Minister of Protection Cezary Tomczyk additionally rejected Mr. Trump’s suggestion on Thursday that the drone incursion might have been inadvertent.

“I feel this can be a message that ought to attain President Trump at the moment: there is not any query of a mistake – this was a deliberate Russian assault,” he informed the Polsat Information tv community.

“On the night time that 19 Russian drones crossed into Poland, 400 (drones) plus 40 missiles crossed into Ukraine,” added Polish Overseas Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in a video message shared on social media, forward of a go to to Ukraine’s capital. “These weren’t errors.”

Poland has requested a gathering of the United Nations Safety Council to debate the Russian drone incursion, which is about to happen Friday afternoon.