NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced this Friday the launch of Operation Eastern Sentry, a maneuver supposedly intended to reinforce the defenses of the military alliance’s eastern flank following the recent incident involving drones crossing Polish airspace, which Warsaw attributed, without evidence, to Moscow.
In an appearance alongside NATO’s Supreme Commander in Europe, General Alexus Grynkewich , Rutte explained that the initiative will begin in the coming days and will involve “various military resources” contributed by allied countries such as Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany , among others.
Germany announced plans to deploy four Eurofighter fighters , while Denmark will deploy two F-16s and France will deploy three Rafale fighters . The United Kingdom has not yet specified how it will participate .
The escalation comes amid the Zapad 2025 defensive military exercises , which began Friday between military contingents from Russia and Belarus .
NATO’s announcement follows a report by the Polish Army on September 10, which reported the detection of 19 drones overnight, three of which were shot down . The wreckage of the aircraft was found in towns near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine .
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has pointed the finger at Russia as the culprit, despite presenting no evidence, and said he had asked NATO to activate Article 4 of the Atlantic Treaty , which calls for consultations between allies when a country feels its security is threatened.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged launching attacks against military facilities in western Ukraine the same night , but denied targeting Poland, asserting that the drones used did not have sufficient range to reach Polish territory . Moscow expressed its willingness to engage in talks with Warsaw to clarify what happened.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized the Western accusations, arguing that NATO and EU leaders “constantly point the finger at Russia without providing evidence . ”
Along the same lines, the Russian chargé d’affaires in Poland, Andrei Ordash, reiterated that Warsaw has not provided evidence proving the drones’ Russian origin and maintained that, according to available information, they originated in Ukraine.
This type of incident is not new . In November 2022, two projectiles landed on Polish territory, killing two civilians. Although authorities initially blamed Moscow , Polish President Andrzej Duda later admitted that it was likely a missile from the Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft system , a conclusion also reached by experts after analyzing the debris found at the site.
Meanwhile, Russia denounced the intensification of NATO aircraft reconnaissance flights over areas of northwestern Russia, which, coincidentally, are heavily targeted by Ukrainian drones . Moscow noted that “observation” of border territories is carried out by aircraft from Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Sweden, and Finland.