Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has said that the incursion of russian drones into Polish airspace was an attempt by the kremlin to test NATO's response by gradually escalating without provoking a full-scale response.
He made the remarks in an interview with The Guardian in Kyiv.
Sikorski confirmed that while the drones used in the incursion were capable of carrying munitions, those that reached Poland were not loaded with explosives.
"Interestingly, they were all duds, which suggests to me that Russia tried to test us without starting a war," Sikorski said.
Sikorski also dismissed Donald Trump's suggestion that "it could have been a mistake," saying that too many drones were involved.
"You can believe that one or two veer off target, but 19 mistakes in one night, over seven hours, sorry, I don't believe it," he said.
He dismissed suggestions that Polish air defenses were unprepared for the invasion, given the fact that some of the drones flew hundreds of miles into Polish territory, and that only three or four of the approximately 19 drones were reportedly shot down.
"The drones didn't reach their targets and there was minor damage to property, nobody was hurt. If it happened in Ukraine, by Ukrainian definitions, that would be regarded as a 100% success," he said.
Sikorski said that the Polish response would be "much tougher" if the attack caused injuries or deaths on its territory, but refused to specify what such a response might look like in a future hypothetical scenario.
"With an aggressor and a liar like Putin, only the toughest counter pressure works," he said.
As a reminder, on September 10, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces confirmed the violation of the country's airspace during a nighttime attack by the aggressor country russia on Ukraine.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, also on September 13, due to the threat of the use of drones by the aggressor country russia on the border of Ukraine, Poland raised military aircraft and deployed ground-based air defense systems.
Meanwhile, on September 13, Romania raised combat aircraft due to a drone of the aggressor country russia, which penetrated into the country's territory by about 10 kilometers and was in the airspace of a NATO country for about 50 minutes.
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