Poland said on Wednesday that, with NATO allies, he had scrambled war planes to shoot down several Russian drones that entered his airspace during the last attack on Moscow against Ukraine, describing the incident of “act of aggression”.

“Last night, Polish airspace was violated by a large number of Russian drones,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk in an article on social networks. “These drones, which put a direct threat, were killed. I am in constant communication with the secretary general of NATO and our allies.”

The army of Poland said that it had scrambled planes to shoot down “hostile objects” in Polish airspace, a first for a NATO country during the war. The soldiers, in a post on X, called him “an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone -type objects” and an “act of aggression which constituted a real threat to the security of our citizens”.

The first diplomat of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, said that the first indications suggested that the Russian drone foray into the airspace of Poland was intentional.

“Last night, in Poland, we saw the violation of the most serious European airspace by Russia since the start of the war, and the indications suggest that it was intentional, not accidental,” Kallas said in a statement. “The EU is in full solidarity with Poland. The Russian war is intensifying, did not finish. We must increase the cost of Moscow, strengthen support for Ukraine and invest in the defense of Europe.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that his drones had not targeted Poland, but the close ally of Moscow, the Bélarus, said that he had followed certain drones who “had lost their course” after being blocked, according to the Associated Press. Polish officials said some of the drones had been launched from the Bélarus, which Russian forces have used as a base for ground and air attacks against Ukraine throughout the war.

In a statement published on social networks, a NATO spokesperson said that fighter planes in the Netherlands had been deployed and helped to shoot drones, confirming that “NATO planes were” the first time that NATO has started potential threats to allied air space “.

In addition to the direct response of Polish and Dutch fighter planes, the German patriotic missiles based in Poland “were put on alert”, and an early Italian airborne alert aircraft and a NATO supply plane were also launched, according to the NATO spokesperson’s press release, Colonel Martin L. O’Donnell.

“NATO responded quickly and decisively to the situation, demonstrating our capacities and our determination to defend the Allied territory,” said General Alexus G. Grynkewich, NATO commander for Europe, in a statement shared with CBS News.

“My thanks and congratulations to the Polish operational command and our NATO pilots for having shot down Russian drones in Poland,” said Polish Prime Minister Tusk in a subsequent social media position. “Actions speak more than words.”

“We hold our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend NATO’s territory every centimeter,” the US Ambassador of NATO Mattake Whitaker said in a social media position in the first reaction of a high American account on the Russian foray into Poland on Wednesday.

A White House official told CBS News later that President Trump followed reports from Poland, and it was planned to speak with the newly elected president of the country Karol Nawrocki later during the day.

Apparent Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members before, including Poland, several times for Russia’s three and a half year warBut no NATO country had ever tried to shoot them down.

A cornerstone of the west of the NATO military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is considered an attack on all. A source from NATO told the Reuters news agency that the Alliance did not treat the foray of the Russian drone in Polish territory as an attack, but that it seemed to have been deliberate.

Tusk told Parliament in Poland that the authorities had identified 19 violations of the country’s airspace overnight and killed at least three drones, adding that no one was injured in “Russian action”.

Tusk said Poland had made an “official request to invoke article 4” of the founding treaty of the NATO alliance. Under article 4, any member can call urgent talks when he believes that “his territorial integrity, his political independence or his security” is in danger.

The Polish affair marked the eighth time that the article has been invoked since the Foundation of the Alliance in 1949, and the third time, article 4 was invoked to discuss the incursions of Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.

NATO’s collective security is based on its principle of article 5, which stipulates that if a member is attacked, the whole alliance will come to his defense. This article was only invoked once in the history of NATO, by the United States, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Poland soldiers said the efforts were “underway to find and locate the possible crushing sites of these objects” and “the operational command of the Polish armed forces monitors the current situation, and the Polish and allied forces and assets remain fully prepared for other actions.”

Polish police said the police had discovered a damaged drone in the Polish village of Czosnowka, according to Reuters, and it was reported that a building had been damaged by a drone or debris in another Polish eastern city, but there was no injury report.

A few hours later, the Polish army said on X that operations had ended, but the search for slaughtered drones continued. “We urge that in the event of observation of an unknown object or its debris, does not approach it, does not touch it. Such elements can constitute a threat and contain dangerous materials. They must be carefully inspected by the appropriate services,” warned the army.

The Polish government has announced that it would last a “extraordinary” meeting on Wednesday morning.

The foray came while Russia sparked a strike barrier across Ukraine, including in the west of the city of Lviv, about 80 kilometers from the Polish border.

Warnings of a new Russian attack

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that eight Russian drones “aimed” Poland in a night dam that forced Warsaw to disturb the air defenses. “It was not only a Shahed that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed at Poland,” said Zelensky, referring to drones designed by Irania deployed by Moscow, adding that the incident represented “an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe”.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andriy Sybiga, warned X that Russian President Vladimir Putin “continues to extend, to expand his war and to test the West. The more he does no more force in response, the more he grows. A weak response in Europe now goes even more than Russia – and then Russian missiles and drones go even more in Europe.”

Polish President Nawrocki issued a warning in the same direction on Tuesday, at a press conference in Helsinki that “we do not trust the good intentions of Vladimir Putin. We believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to invade other countries.”

The head of the European Union, Ursula, said that Moscow had made an “reckless and unprecedented” violation of the Polish airspace.

And the best diplomat in the EU, Kaja Kallas, published on Wednesday X that “we have seen the violation of the most serious European space by Russia since the start of the war, and the indications suggest that it was intentional, not accidental. The EU is in full solidarity with Poland.

Poland of the NATO member, a big supporter of Ukraine, welcomes more than a million Ukrainian refugees and is a key transit point for Western humanitarian and military aid to the country torn by the war.

Last month, Warsaw said that a Russian military drone stole in its air space and exploded in agricultural land in eastern Poland and described the incident as a “provocation”. In 2023 Poland said that a Russian missile crossed its airspace to strike Ukraine. And in November 2022, two civilians were killed when a Ukrainian anti -aircraft missile fell into a village near the border.