WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday offered an ambiguous initial response to Russia’s drone incursion into Poland’s airspace, a provocative act by Moscow that has put the United States’ NATO allies in Europe on edge.
“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform late Wednesday morning, nearly a half-day after Poland announced that several Russian drones entered its territory over the course of many hours and were shot down with help from NATO allies.
White House officials did not immediately respond to queries about Trump’s cryptic comments about the incursion. It was the first time the transatlantic alliance has confronted a potential threat in its airspace, scrambling jets to shoot the Russian drones out of the sky.
But Trump’s comment stood in sharp contrast to the strong condemnation by several European leaders and was notably less robust than that of his ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker.
“We stand by our @NATO Allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory,” Whitaker posted on X.
The incursion occurred as the US leader is struggling to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in direct peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to end Russia’s more than 3-year-old war in Ukraine.
Trump spoke Wednesday with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, who was at the White House last week for talks in which the two leaders discussed expanding the US military presence i n Poland. Following the call, Nawrocki posted on X that the conversation ”confirmed the unity of our alliance.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said in an X post that he also spoke by phone with Trump about the ″worrying developments in the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, in particular following the incursion of Russian drones in Poland.″ The leaders also discussed Israel’s strikes in Qatar on Tuesday targeting Hamas’ leadership, a stunning escalation that risked upending a Trump administration-led effort at winding down the Gaza war and freeing hostages.
The US president last month held a summit with Putin in Alaska and then met with Zelensky and key European allies about finding a pathway to end the war — something that Trump vowed to get done quickly during his 2024 White House campaign.
Trump emerged from those high-level talks to announce he was arranging a Putin-Zelensky meeting and potentially a three-way summit in which he would take part. But Trump’s confidence in arranging a peace summit has fizzled as Putin has only intensified air strikes on Ukraine over the past few weeks.
After Wednesday’s incursion, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina urged Trump to move forward with new sanctions on Moscow.
“Mr. President, Congress is with you,” Graham posted on X. “We stand ready to pass legislation authorizing bone crushing new sanctions and tariffs that can be deployed at your discretion. Our goal is to empower you as you deal with this mounting threat.”
Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, a close Moscow ally, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus said it tracked some drones that “lost their course” and entered Poland because they were jammed.
But European officials did not accept Moscow’s explanation and argued the incident suggests Putin is escalating his war on Ukraine. Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in NATO territory.
“What Putin wants to do is to test us,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels. “What happened in Poland is a game changer.” She added that the Russian action should result in stronger sanctions.
NATO allies swiftly held talks Wednesday on the incursion with the alliance’s 32 member states. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told Parliament that the consultations came under Article 4 of the treaty that founded NATO in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II.
Article 4, the shortest of the NATO treaty’s 14 articles and infrequently invoked, states that: “The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
Trump offers ambiguous initial response to Russian drone incursion into Poland’s airspace
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Trump offers ambiguous initial response to Russian drone incursion into Poland’s airspace
- Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, a close Moscow ally, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday
Ukraine drops NATO goal as Trump envoy sees progress in peace talks
- The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution
BERLIN/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the NATO military alliance as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia, with negotiations set to continue on Monday.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Zelensky in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, though full details were not divulged.
Zelensky’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said the president would comment on the talks on Monday once they were completed. Officials, Lytvyn said, were considering the draft documents.
“They went on for more than five hours and ended for today with an agreement to resume tomorrow morning,” Lytvyn told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Ahead of the talks, Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s goal to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees.
The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution. It also meets one of Russia’s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.
“Representatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more. A lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
The talks were hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who a source said had made brief remarks before leaving the two sides to negotiate. Other European leaders are also due in Germany for talks on Monday.
“From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction,” Zelensky said in answer to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
“Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelensky said.
“And it is already a compromise on our part,” he said, adding the security guarantees should be legally binding.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded Ukraine officially renounce its NATO ambitions and withdraw troops from the about 10 percent of Donbas which Kyiv still controls. Moscow has also said Ukraine must be a neutral country and no NATO troops can be stationed in Ukraine.
Russian sources said earlier this year that Putin wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the US-led NATO alliance eastwards — shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
Sending Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia on a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress nearly four years after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Under pressure from Trump to sign a peace deal that initially backed Moscow’s demands, Zelensky accused Russia of dragging out the war through deadly bombings of cities and Ukraine’s power and water supplies.
A ceasefire along the current front lines would be a fair option, he added.
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was a “good sign” Trump had sent his envoys while fielding questions in an interview with the ZDF broadcaster on the suitability of Witkoff and Kushner, two businessmen, as negotiators.
“It’s certainly anything but an ideal setup for such negotiations. That much is clear. But as they say, you can only dance with the people on the dance floor,” Pistorius said.
On the issue of Ukraine’s offer to give up its NATO aspirations in exchange for security guarantees, Pistorius said Ukraine had bitter prior experience of relying on security assurances. Kyiv had in 1994 agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for territorial guarantees from the US, Russia and Britain.
“Therefore, it remains to be seen to what extent this statement Zelensky has now made will actually hold true, and what preconditions must be met,” Pistorius said.
“This concerns territorial issues, commitments from Russia and others,” he said, adding mere security guarantees, especially without significant US involvement, “wouldn’t be worth much.”
Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the US proposals, which in a draft disclosed last month called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its NATO ambitions and accept limits on its armed forces.
European allies have described this as a “critical moment” that could shape Ukraine’s future, and sought to shore up Kyiv’s finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv’s military and civilian budget.
