BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Russia’s violation of Poland’s airspace with drones on Wednesday marks the most serious cross-border incident into a NATO member country since the war in Ukraine began.
But other alliance countries have reported similar incursions and drone crashes on their territory since 2022.
The overnight incident in Poland has been labelled an “act of aggression” and drew a military response by NATO in shooting down multiple drones, as several European leaders said they believed Moscow was intentionally escalating the war.
But since Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Croatia and Romania, and non-NATO member Moldova — the latter two of which share long borders with Ukraine — have reported multiple airspace violations and have found drone fragments on their territory.
Poland’s experience is not the first time NATO airspace has been violated.
String of airspace violations since war started
Romania found several drone crash sites on its territory in 2023, including one that caused a crater near a village across the Danube River from the Ukrainian port of Izmail. That crash site finding followed several other similar incidents that left many Romanians near the border nervous that the war could spill over.
In February 2024, Moldova destroyed explosives discovered in a part of a Shahed drone that crashed on its territory in the southern town of Etulia. Moldova’s Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi called it “a stark reminder of the violence and destruction sown by the Kremlin.”
Since 2023, numerous airspace incursions and drone fragment findings have been reported in both countries, and while no one has been hurt in any of the incidents and the origin not always determined, the proximity has often highlighted how easily the war could cross over the Ukrainian border.
Just weeks after the war in Ukraine started, a 6-ton Soviet-era military drone armed with explosives drifted uncontrolled from the Ukrainian war zone over NATO members Romania and Hungary, before entering Croatia and crashing in the capital, Zagreb. About 40 parked cars were damaged in a large explosion, but no one was injured. Croatian investigators never made public whether the aircraft belonged to Ukraine or Russia.
In early February this year, Russian drones crashed within a day in Moldova and Romania as the two eastern European neighbors reported aerial vehicles entered their airspace during Russia’s overnight attacks on neighboring Ukraine’s Danube port.
Both countries determined that the drones were Shahed unmanned aircraft that Moscow uses in its war on Ukraine. Moldovan President Maia Sandu said at the time that the violations put “Moldovan lives at risk,” and the head of the Russian diplomatic mission in Chisinau was summoned. Days later, two more drones entered Moldovan airspace near the border.
In March, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said that fragments of a Russian drone carrying explosives were found in southeast Galati county, just 500 meters from a border crossing with Moldova. Investigators determined the fragments were “of Russian origin.” It was subject to a controlled detonation.
Romania adopts legislation to down errant drones
Airspace violations have become so commonplace in Romania in recent years that lawmakers adopted legislation in February allowing the army to shoot down drones that enter its airspace, as a last resort if other measures fail. Romania’s hard-right parties opposed the law.
Analysts have long viewed such incidents in Romania as potential tests by Russia to see how NATO would react. Romania is frequently scrambling fighter jets — as it did early Wednesday — to monitor its airspace for potentially encroaching drones.
Radu Tudor, a defense analyst in Bucharest, says “military provocations” from Russia have become commonplace on the eastern flank and that “Russia is behaving more and more aggressively.”
“Here is the threat: on air, on the land … in the Black Sea,” he told The Associated Press. “Also huge, huge cyber attacks and hybrid attacks, so it’s a multi-dimensional attack from Russia on the eastern flank of NATO.”
‘Russia must be stopped’
After the incident on Wednesday in Poland, Romanian President Nicusor Dan said Russia’s latest airspace violation of NATO-member Poland proved that Moscow is “constantly testing our limits” and shows it is not interested in peace in Ukraine.
“Russia must be stopped and pressured to come to the negotiation table,” Dan wrote on X. “We are united to make NATO and especially the eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, more secure.”
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
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Stephen McGrath reported from Warwick, U.K; Dusan Stojanovic reported from Belgrade, Serbia.
