Polish foreign minister says Vladimir Putin seeks to test west’s reactions without triggering full-scale war
Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, has said last week’s Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace was an attempt by the Kremlin to test Nato’s reactions by incremental escalations without prompting a full-scale response.
Sikorski confirmed that while the drones used in the incursion were capable of carrying ammunition, 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 told the Guardian in Kyiv.
He dismissed suggestions that Polish air defences had been unprepared for the incursion, given the fact some of the drones travelled hundreds of miles into Polish territory, and that accounts suggest only three or four out of about 19 were 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.
