![\"Analysis\"](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\")
Russian drones didn\u2019t just stray into Poland – they went deep to test the Westpublished at 05:36 British Summer Time<\/p>\nRussian drones didn\u2019t just stray into Poland – they went deep to test the Westpublished at 05:36 British Summer Time<\/p>\n
05:36 BST<\/p>\n
This happened during the latest Russian attack across Ukraine, where the air raid began before midnight, with warnings of at least 100 drones in the air – and of Russia preparing missiles for launch.<\/p>\n Then, as Ukrainians took to shelters underground, the online channels that they watched began reporting several of those drones crossing into Poland. <\/p>\n They began writing in Polish, warning people there to take cover. \u201cChelm \u2013 to the shelters!\u201d , \u201cZamosc \u2013 into the shelters!\u201d <\/p>\n This feels like an escalation by Moscow – testing the West\u2019s response. Because it appears its drones didn\u2019t just stray into Poland. <\/p>\n They went deep enough for even Warsaw airport to be closed. <\/p>\n And it\u2019s happening as the aerial attacks on Ukraine have become far bigger – and more frequent. <\/p>\n Then last weekend, a Russian missile hit the main government building here. Before that, the EU and British Council buildings in Kyiv were damaged. <\/p>\n Russian drones have crossed Ukraine\u2019s western border before. A Russian missile even landed in a forest once, but didn\u2019t detonate. <\/p>\n In 2022, two villagers were killed close to the border, apparently after Ukrainian air defence downed a missile. So the Polish air force now scrambles, whenever the threat gets close. <\/p>\n But they\u2019ve never shot anything down before. So this is new territory for Poland \u2013 and for Nato. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian drones didn\u2019t just stray into Poland – they went deep to test the Westpublished at 05:36 British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-412537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115178770735870644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/02b0d985-590e-46f0-ba8a-ffff8a5e8afd.jpg.webp.webp\")
Sarah Rainsford<\/strong>
Eastern Europe correspondent, reporting from Kyiv<\/p>\n