On 9 September 2025, at about 11:30 p.m. CEST, over 30 unarmed military drones entered Poland's airspace after allegedly being launched from Russia. The incursion triggered a Quick Reaction Alert; the Polish Air Force and other NATO militaries scrambled aircraft. Up to four drones were confirmed to have been shot down, most by the Dutch Air Force. Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk said that the drones "posed a direct threat". The airspace over Warsaw International Airport, Warsaw Modlin Airport, Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport, and Lublin Airport was closed while the Russian drone fleet was in Polish airspace.
Shortly thereafter, the Polish government invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty. Polish deputy prime minister Radosław Sikorski said, "We are dealing with an unprecedented case of an attack not only on the territory of Poland but also on the territory of NATO and the EU". After the incident, Russia and Belarus conducted joint military exercises, the largest since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In response to the drone incursion, NATO launched Operation Eastern Sentry on 12 September.
Incursion and defence
Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita claimed that the number of Russian drones was around 23; they entered Poland via Belarus. Belarus warned Poland and Lithuania before the incursion that several drones affected by electronic warfare in Ukraine passed through Belarusian territory.
Several NATO countries also took part in the operation to shoot down the drones, aiding the Polish F-16s. The deployment included Dutch F-35 Lightning II, Italian airborne early warning and control aircraft, and a Belgian Airbus A330 MRTT aerial tanker. German MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air systems in Poland were placed on high alert and tracked the path of the drone wave. Of the drones that were neutralized, most were shot down by Dutch F-35 aircraft. The last interception occurred at 06:45 CEST. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, among other sources, reported that up to four drones were destroyed by allied forces, and he did not rule out the possibility that more had been brought down. These actions marked the first time Poland, or any NATO country, engaged and downed Russian assets in its airspace since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Locations of drones and debris included several sites near the Polish eastern border (Bychawka Trzecia, Cześniki, Czosnówka, Krzywowierzba-Kolonia, Wielki Łan, Wohyń, Wyhalew, Wyryki-Wola, Zabłocie-Kolonia, and near Rabiany), several in south-eastern Poland (Czyżów, Smyków, Sobótka), as well as a field near Mniszków and the town of Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą in central Poland, and Oleśno in northern Poland. An AIM-120 AMRAAM missile fired at a drone by a Polish F-16 fighter went stray and struck a residential building in Wyryki-Wola, Lublin Voivodeship, destroying the roof of the house, but did not explode. Damage on civilian property was also reported at Czosnówka, while another drone fell on an undisclosed military base.
Debris from an air-to-air missile was found more than a week later in Choiny, some 70 kilometres from the Ukrainian border; almost at the same time that Latvian authorities recovered fragments from a Russian drone on a beach near the western village of Varve, Ventspils district, thought to belong to a drone shot down over Poland. On 20 September a drone made of styrofoam was discovered by a farmer in a marsh at Korsze, Kętrzyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, likely the last Russian drone that entered the country during the night of 9–10 September. The type of drone was identical to the one found at Oleśno. A Gerbera drone was found as late as March 12th 2026 in a lignite mine near Galczyce, Greater Poland Voivodeship, some 170 kilometres (110 mi) west of Warsaw.
The next day, a drone and debris from other two drones were recovered from different locations; in Masovian Voivodeship, mushroom collectors came upon fragments of a drone in the village of Wodynie, Siedlce County, while a similar finding of debris was made almost at the same time in a forest near the village of Biała Góra, Białobrzegi County. Another drone appeared in a forest in Sulmice, Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship. A fragment from a missile used by the NATO fighters to engage the drones was found as late as April 10th 2026 in the village of Jarosławiec, Lublin Voivodeship. By the end of September, an F-35A from the 313th Squadron of the Royal Dutch Air Force received a kill mark for the successful action against the Russian drones in Poland.
Similar incidents involving drones linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued to occur in neighbouring NATO member states. In May 2026, three Ukrainian drones targeting Russia entered Latvian airspace after reportedly being affected by signal jamming, contributing to a political crisis that led to the resignation of Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa.
Analysis
At least some of the drones used in the incursion were of the Gerbera type. Others were made of polystyrene rather than plywood. The Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lublin said that the recovered drones were not armed and did not contain explosive materials; it described them as "decoy drones". According to analysts Justin Bronk of RUSI and Justin Crump of the risk and intelligence company Sibylline quoted by BBC Verify, "...the scale of the incursion suggests it was almost certainly a deliberate act on Russia's part." Some of the drones had Polish SIM cards inserted to control them.
Following the 9–10 September incursion, Rzeczpospolita stated that modernisation of the "SkyCTRL" anti-drone system in Poland had been delayed for eighteen months by the Polish Ministry of Defence (MON) due to lack of funds, and that the system was effectively inactive. Rzeczpospolita stated its expectation that MON would find the needed funding, but that several months would be needed for implementation.
As of 12 September 2025, the wrecks of 17 drones have been identified. Marcin Przydacz, the Polish presidential advisor on international affairs, confirmed that 21 drones crossed into Polish airspace during the incursion. According to final findings of the Polish Prosecutor's Office, there were "over 30" drones, which fell in 27 locations, three of which remained undisclosed.
The damaging of the residential building in Wyryki caused a scandal domestically, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk being accused of attempting to cover up that the damage was caused by a Polish missile; furthermore, President Karol Nawrocki and the National Security Bureau had allegedly not been informed of the Polish origin of the missile.
Polish briefing to United Nations Security Council
On 12 September 2025, Poland gave an emergency briefing to the UN Security Council on the incident. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo stated that Poland had reported that during the night of 9 September, 19 Russian drones had entered Polish airspace reportedly causing damage in residential areas of two Polish villages, Wyryki and Czosnówka; no casualties were reported. Belarus had warned Poland as some of the drones approached its airspace. Belarus reported it had intercepted several drones over its territory, stating the drones had been deflected by Ukrainian counter-drone measures causing them to overfly its territory.
A number of representatives to the UN present at the briefing made statements, often on the broader issues of the Russo-Ukrainian War rather than specifically on the drone incursion. No vote took place at this briefing meeting.
The French representative stated that one drone had reached the Gdańsk region, more than 700 km (430 mi) from the Ukrainian border. The Russian Federation representative stated that the Polish authorities had acknowledged that they had not found any explosive warheads on the drones. He stated that the range of drones used in the attack on Ukrainian military targets that night had not exceeded 700 km (430 mi) which made it impossible for them to have reached Polish territory, and Russia was willing to engage in professional discussions with the Polish MOD to understand what had taken place. The Polish representative stated that Polish territorial integrity had been purposely violated by Russian drones on an unprecedented scale, and Poland knew that it was not a mistake.