Poland shot down multiple Russian-launched unmanned aerial vehicles after a series of incursions into its airspace early on Wednesday, forcing authorities to order more than eight million people to shelter and prompting the deployment of NATO aircraft to intercept the threat.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the country’s air-defence systems detected a wave of hostile objects and that Polish and allied jets — including Polish F-16s and Dutch F-35s supported by NATO surveillance and refuelling aircraft — engaged the drones. He told parliament that several drones were shot down, adding that three or four of 19 objects were destroyed. Debris from at least one downed drone struck and damaged a residential house.
Poland has asked NATO to convene under Article 4, which allows members to bring security concerns to the North Atlantic Council, and its security council planned to meet to consider an "appropriate response," officials said. Tusk said some of the drones entered from neighbouring Belarus. Ukrainian officials expressed concern about what they described as a deliberate escalation by Russia.
Western and regional officials, as well as independent analysts, attributed the incursions to so-called Gerbera drones — a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle that emerged on the battlefield in mid-2024 and has been increasingly employed by Russian forces. The Gerbera is a simplified, lower-cost derivative of the Iranian Shahed-136 family and is built largely from inexpensive materials such as plywood and polystyrene foam rather than fiberglass and carbon fibre.
Manufacturers and open-source investigators say the design and components have Chinese origins and that the drones are largely assembled by Skywalker Technology before final production in a factory in Yelabuga, Russia. The drones are roughly 6.6 feet long with an 8.2-foot wingspan, have a reported maximum flight altitude of about 9,800 feet, a top speed near 99 miles per hour, and an operational range of roughly 370–372 miles when unladen. Their unit cost is estimated at about $10,000, a fraction of the price of larger loitering munitions.
Early uses of Gerberas were largely as decoys intended to saturate and deplete air-defence responses ahead of heavier strikes. Over the past year, however, users have adapted the platform for reconnaissance, signal-relay missions and kamikaze attacks. Field reports indicate many Gerbera drones have been fitted with small explosive charges and can carry warheads of up to about 5 kilograms, a markedly smaller payload than some heavier loitering munitions but sufficient to damage infrastructure and cause civilian casualties when used against soft targets.
Gerbera drones first appeared in July 2024 and armed variants were reported in combat zones from April 2025. In several incidents this summer and autumn, Gerberas crossed into neighbouring NATO-member Lithuania from Belarus, crashing near border checkpoints and a military training area; Lithuanian authorities briefly moved senior officials to shelters as a precaution during one incident. Analysts cautioned that some of those incursions could have been accidents, while others said they appeared to test responses by Baltic and NATO forces.
Poland said radar and Patriot-class defence systems tracked the latest incursion. In addition to Polish fighters, allied aircraft — including Dutch F-35s, an Italian surveillance aircraft and NATO's mid-air refueller and tanker fleet — were mobilised to monitor and counter the threat, officials said. Local emergency services cordoned off impact sites and investigators inspected fragments recovered from one area.
The strikes mark one of the largest instances to date in which Russian-launched drones have crossed into NATO-member territory, raising tensions in Europe amid Russia's broader campaign in Ukraine. Polish officials framed the incident as a grave escalation; Prime Minister Tusk warned in remarks to lawmakers that "we are closer to war than any time since World War Two," and said he was consulting with allies. NATO officials did not immediately characterise the incursion as an attack on the alliance, and consultations were under way.
Ukrainian authorities have previously warned that Russia has increased launches of low-cost drones to strain defences and expand the battlefield. For their proponents, platforms like the Gerbera offer a cheap, expendable means of forcing adversaries to divert air-defence resources and complicate aerial situational awareness. Critics point to the risks of miscalculation and spillover when such drones cross international borders.
Investigations by Polish and allied teams will focus on the precise origin and flight paths of the objects, whether launches came directly from Russian territory or from Belarus, and whether the incursions were intended to probe NATO responses. The outcome of those inquiries could shape diplomatic and military responses in the coming days as members of the alliance consult over the use of Article 4 and possible collective measures.
The incident follows a pattern of increasing use of unmanned systems in the war in Ukraine, where both sides have relied on drones for surveillance, strike missions and electronic tasks. Analysts say the low cost and adaptability of small UAVs have made them a persistent feature of the conflict and a new challenge for European security and air-defence planning.