September 11, 2025
DIANE FRANCIS
Vladimir Putin just conducted a test run against NATO, and the alliance flunked. Russian drones entered Polish airspace, NATO shot some down, airports shut, ministers scrambled, Warsaw went into emergency meetings, and Poland even invoked NATO’s Article 4, calling for urgent consultations. But the episode was treated more like a weather incident rather than an act of war. Excuses proliferated, but this was no accident. It was deemed “reckless”, not dangerous, by NATO’s secretary-general Mark Rutte because the drones were not the lethal variety that obliterate Ukraine daily. But that was beside the point. This was a dress rehearsal for all-out war — a probing attack meant to gauge Europe’s defenses, response times, and political nerve. And NATO’s wobbling signalled weakness. By any rational definition, the entry of 19 drones into Poland’s airspace constituted an armed incursion into a NATO member state. However, since NATO officials refused to label the attack as such, military analyst Phillips O’Brien aptly concluded, “NATO states have failed.”
The President’s response was quizzical, not resolute nor decisive. He did not attack Putin or invoke the legislation languishing in Congress that would pound Putin’s economy into the ground by imposing punitive tariffs on all its oil customers, from China to Brazil, Turkey, Denmark, Hungary, and Serbia. However, an outspoken Republican House member, Joe Wilson, spoke for many when he said, “This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putin’s continued unprovoked aggression against free and productive nations.”
The drones were shot just after the Polish prime minister announced Poland would close its border with Belarus as a result of the “very aggressive” Zapad annual military exercises being conducted by Belarus and Russia. Putin has thousands of troops and nuclear weapons stashed permanently in that puppet nation and uses the Belarusian President as a foil. After the incursions, Belarus blamed Ukraine and stated that it had warned Poland about the likelihood of drones entering its territory as a result of electronic warfare deployed by Ukraine to counter the latest Russian attack. Pavel Muraveiko, the head of Belarus’s armed forces, even claimed: “This [heads up] helped the Polish side react quickly to the drone activity” and added that Belarus had also shot down drones that entered its airspace as a result of Ukrainian jamming.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the leadership of the European Union and NATO “nearly daily accuse Russia of provocations, most often without even trying to present their line of reasoning.” Then Moscow rolled out its “hypocrisy” artillery, denying any involvement, then condemning the Israeli strike on Doha as a “gross violation” of the UN Charter and international law. The Russian foreign ministry, always straight-faced, serially accuses Israel and the US, Europe, and NATO of undermining sovereignty and international laws. But talk of “bone-crushing sanctions” on Russia’s economy by US Secretary Scott Bessent was met yesterday with another nuclear threat by a Putin cohort. “Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive
attack on Ukraine show that Putin’s sense of impunity keeps growing,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in a statement about the incident. “He was not properly punished for his previous crimes.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose plane was dangerously disabled by the Russians last week as she toured frontline states, minced no words: “Putin has not changed, and he will not change. He is a predator. He can only be kept in check through strong deterrence.” She is right, but all she has done is summon meetings, not scramble jets, and has not convinced members to deploy their economic weapons to bring down Putin’s regime. As a result, the European Union continues to dither over seizing Russia’s $330 billion in frozen assets and has failed to ban Russian fossil fuel imports — a move that America will insist on now, and that ironically may happen. Ironically, Putin’s next move will be to cut off energy if they militarize.
Europe’s strategic malpractice includes the fact that little has been done to call out or punish Russia for its hybrid attacks across Europe for years, from assassinations to telecoms destruction or underwater infrastructure damage in the Baltic Sea.
Such sabotage is difficult to prosecute, but there’s no excuse for allowing such Russian incursions to continue. “Russian drones have increasingly crossed into Polish airspace from Ukraine in recent weeks as Moscow has expanded its attacks on Ukrainian cities,” wrote the Wall Street Journal. Other drones have attacked Romania and Moldova. On August 28, another warning shot took place in the Black Sea region when a Russian naval drone attacked and sank an unmanned Ukrainian reconnaissance ship on the Danube River, just meters from Romania’s border.
Despite increasing attacks, responses remain muted. Thus, Putin’s provocations mount. Geopolitically, he continues to bash America and the West for its military and diplomatic strategy. He recently grandstanded in Beijing with President Xi Jinping, then signed another gas pipeline deal with China in an effort to replace the European sales Putin lost after the invasion. The pipeline may never be built; the other one signed years ago wasn’t, but the signing was useful propaganda.
Since his Alaska “peace” summit with Donald Trump, Putin’s message remains: Ukraine must be destroyed until it capitulates, Ukraine will collapse before Russia’s economy does, NATO is a paper tiger and will collapse next, and Russia will dictate the terms of any armistice with Kyiv. His posturing is possible, despite his nation’s weaknesses, because Putin holds the world to ransom with his nuclear arsenal.
Now, Putin once again capitalizes on the fact that America’s media and political system are consumed with the assassination of a Trump ally, Charlie Kirk, Epstein, tariffs, Israel, and internal lawlessness; that Paris burns with riots; that London seethes with migration and fiscal problems, and that Berlin dithers strategically. Fortunately, Poland has doubled its military in a decade and is the third-largest armed force in NATO, and is also joined at the hip with a more powerful Ukraine, which continues to badly degrade Russia’s economy and military.
After centuries of skirmishes, captivity, and rivalries, these two Eastern European nation-states are the frontline against the world’s scourge. Unlike the US, they have never mistaken the Russians as “friends”. Moscow is a terrorist state, and its attacks must be called out for what they are. Putin’s energy should be banned, and his frozen assets should be seized. Russia’s oil customers must be punished for financing Putin’s genocidal war, including all the NATO holdouts. Ukraine, Poland, and Romania must be flooded with weapons, troops, and air defense systems, and NATO must step up.
Putin’s 9/11 isn’t about hijacking and slamming jumbo jets into buildings, but about his creeping control and hybrid attacks in Europe. As the Wall Street Journal editorial wrote today: “The President knows the pressure he can apply on Mr. Putin: More sanctions, more weapons for Ukraine, and fewer restrictions on their use, and a reinforcement of NATO’s military power so it isn’t caught off guard by Russia’s probing. The drone parts now scattered all over Poland bear an old message, and it’s that weakness invites aggression.”