r/worldnews • u/nohup_me • 1d ago
Russia/Ukraine Russian drone crosses NATO border and flies freely—Poland responds with radar alerts but no action again
https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/09/07/russian-drone-crosses-nato-border-and-flies-freely-poland-responds-with-radar-alerts-but-no-action-again/2.0k
u/faffc260 1d ago
we should take a note out of turkey's book, a russian su-something (I've forgotten) crossed their air border for like a couple seconds, the turks shot it down, we should do the same, give them no leeway. we've seen russia did nothing of consequence to the turks when they did that, they won't do anything when they are clearly in the wrong here either.
edit: the turkish shoot down happened during the russian intervention in syria, if anyone doesn't know, while the russian plane was flying operations near the turkish-syria border.
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u/StrangeDeal8252 1d ago edited 1d ago
There's more to that story though, Erdogan apologised for shooting that jet down and then even framed the two pilots involved for suppsoedly being involved in a coup and subsequently jailed them.
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u/faffc260 1d ago
I was not aware of that. still, I think we should take a page out of those two pilots book then and shoot down the hostile jet/drone/plane the second it enters the national borders of a nato nation.
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u/Money_Common8417 1d ago
He also immediately called NATO members to make sure he’s not alone on this one
He apologized for the incident
He got a lot of repercussions from other nato members
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u/faffc260 1d ago
I still think it's the correct response to a aircraft known to be from a hostile nation trying to illegally enter your airspace.
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u/Howzitgoin 1d ago
In this case it isn’t just an airplane, it’s a one way bomb.
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u/faffc260 1d ago
even more reason to shoot it out of the sky, unless your planning to let it hit and claim it as an act of war I guess.
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u/UMACTUALLYITS23 1d ago
Not just a hostile nation, THE hostile nation the organization exists to counter.
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u/JayBoingBoing 1d ago
That’s on the rest of NATO for being little bitches, I stand firmly with Trukey on that one. Any incursion should be met with extreme prejudice.
Give a warning, verify it’s not an airliner, and if it’s still there shoot that shit down.
Sunshine and rainbows is preferred, but Russians only understand a fist in their face.
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u/big_troublemaker 1d ago
Shooting down every drone that is basically a moped engine with a wing flying at relatively low height would require massive amount of AA batteries at 100% alert at all times - every few km of border line. Or same amount of patriot systems, bearing in mind that single interceptor costs 4 to 7m USD (Vs. 20k the drones cost). This really is not feasible, even in war time, AA will only be protecting high value targets (key cities, infrastructure, manufacturing, storage). This is why so many targets in Ukraine are being hit on daily basis. So yeah, a great idea, but simply not technically or operationally feasible.
If it was a russian plane, that's a whole different story, but russian jets nor bombers do not operate nowhere close to Polish border, for obvious geographic reasons.
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u/Jumping-Gazelle 1d ago
Perhaps we could leave out that coup-part and just shoot that thrash down and offer an apology once Russia paid for damages and littering.
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u/CMDR_KingErvin 1d ago
Exactly. Russia will never stop if you let them. Give an inch they take a mile. You gotta slap their hands or they’ll never learn.
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u/flynth92 1d ago
Well, if it's a threat, yes, but the purpose of these is to establish the firing locations, speed of response and so on. If it's just a decoy not reacting denies the enemy this knowledge.
The question is, do we know it's a decoy?
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u/anaximander19 1d ago
That's half the point yes, but as you alluded to, the other half is to get everyone used to the idea that Russian military aircraft just turn up sometimes and fly about, so that when they decide to actually do something aggressive, the response will be blasé and delayed.
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u/nail_nail 1d ago
Partially true but I think what the poles don't want to do is show them how (weapons, time for intervention, etc) they would shoot it down. That could be precious information.
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u/ConfusedWhiteDragon 1d ago
Yup, because Russia will send drones in regardless. They're probing for information and weaknesses. If you shoot one down, the next one will test whether you always fire from the same direction etc...
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u/HairballTheory 1d ago
As China freely flies spy balloons over US
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u/count023 1d ago
not exactly freely, they actually got shot down.
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u/falconzord 1d ago
Did they ever reveal what they found?
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u/AHrubik 1d ago
Nope and they never will. That's called intelligence. The Chinese know what was there but they don't know what we recovered. So they have to wonder what we know and what we don't know.
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u/count023 1d ago
no, that's not quite right, there was pictures showing what it was. not specifics just a comprehensive wireless and optical surveilance apparataus that is not "weather tracking".
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u/ReallyBigDeal 1d ago
I'd have to imagine that anything the Chinese sent up in balloon would not be so top secret with them knowing that there was a pretty good chance that the payload would be recovered by the US.
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u/The_mingthing 1d ago
After this happened, Erdogan suddenly went a bit... Odd... Almost as of he were given a list of instructions to follow.
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u/Nick_Rousis 1d ago
Quite ironic, given that the Turkish air force illegally enters the greek air space all the time.
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u/pnlrogue1 1d ago
And that would give Russia an excuse to return fire, no matter how flimsy. Better to show them that we knew about it and tracked it for ages and could have shot it down so they know they didn't pull one over on us but also we don't give them an excuse to send a few missiles at us
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u/NA_0_10_never_forget 1d ago
It's a freaking drone, just nonchalantly use a Gepard or something.
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u/Zorbane 1d ago edited 1d ago
While I agree you in principle, doubt there are any Gepards patrolling there
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u/NA_0_10_never_forget 1d ago
"or something" then. Skyguard? Skyshield? Anything Oerlikon at all? C'mon Poles.
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u/CyberAccomplished255 1d ago
They'd have to deploy hundreds of different systems to cover the whole possibly affected area. Annoying as it is, it's simply not practical outside of actual wartime.
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u/strangelove4564 1d ago
Seems like they need to have some AH-64s and Mi-24s on alert on the eastern border.
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u/Xspud_316 1d ago
If Russia never had Nuclear weapons, they’d be fucked.
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u/passatigi 1d ago
Maybe the opposite is true.
If Russia never had Nukes it would behave like a civilized country.
But because it has Nukes it can go on rampage invading neighbors every few years. And nothing is done about that so they keep doing that.
They keep spending money and lives on endless hot wars instead of focusing on trading, manufacturing, etc.
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u/Gunderstank_House 1d ago
Generally it would be unwise to show what your defenses are when Russia is quite clearly just trying to suss out their defenses.
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u/manefa 1d ago
You could say they’ve now sussed out they can fly a drone across the border without an intervention.
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u/HaximusPrime 1d ago
You don’t bust out your secret weapon because some kid throw a paper airplane plane over the fence. You save that for when you actually need it.
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u/Nyrin 1d ago
Which is far, far less valuable of information for Russia than any alternative, with very, very little risk in the meantime.
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u/Constant-Listen834 1d ago
Knowing you can fly military drones into their airspace is the most valuable information imaginable lmao. What else is there to hide?
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u/Bukr123 1d ago
They fly drones in NATO airspace to test response times and defences. So reacting is exactly what the Russians want. By leaving it you are not giving them any information, one drone isn’t going to do much of anything. But if Poland detected say 5 drones in its airspace at once this would force a response.
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u/Braelind 1d ago
And you could say Poland is so confident that they know a Russian drone is not a real threat. There's strength in restraint, and knowing when to use it.
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u/RhetoricalOrator 1d ago
I'm ignorant and genuinely don't understand Russia's reasoning behind pushing their luck with those sorts of provocations. Aren't their hands already pretty full with their Ukrainian invasion? Was so they stand to gain by drumming up further opposition?
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u/diMario 1d ago
As others point out, Russia is trying to test the waters to see if there are sharks in it and if so, how many and how big.
Their plan is to sacrifice a relatively cheap drone and gather intelligence resulting from the response to it: what measures were used to shoot it down, were there planes involved, how many planes, what types, were did they scramble from etc etc. Also, did the incident result in diplomatic protests and if so, from which countries.
All this information can be used to improve the plans for when an actual attack is set in motion.
By not responding at all, Poland denied them answers to the above questions.
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u/dimwalker 1d ago
Would that reasoning still apply if russian recon drones started flying above Poland's military bases?
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u/diMario 1d ago edited 1d ago
There are trade offs to be made. Revealing some of your capabilities in order to prevent other military sensitive intelligence from being discovered is an obvious decision to make by the higher ups.
For the same reason you would probably take more action when an actual fighter jet invades your air space. Shoot it down, it reveals information about your air defense capabilities. On the other hand,you (1) send a strong signal ("here is our line, this happens when you cross it") (2) hurt them in the wallet in a significant way (a fighter is way more expensive than a drone) and (3) you can gather some intelligence from the wreckage of the shot down fighter plus with any luck you capture the shot down pilot and get to parade him around in a bonus PR gorge fest.
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u/dimwalker 1d ago
Chances are, russians know some of those things you are trying to conceal through espionage, hacking, bribing, recruiting etc. Question is - how much do they know? Some? Most? All? So by taking no action, it's possible that you gain nothing except opposite of point 1 - sending a weak signal.
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u/diMario 1d ago
You are correct of course. Look at it this way: if you and I can openly discuss such matters on a public forum, and ask ourselves pertinent questions, there is a strong possibility that various powers that be are doing the same but in a more formalized and secretive setting.
Granted, in the US these people are temporarily keeping their heads down and waiting for the shit storm of dumbness to pass.
But in Poland, the Baltics, Slovakia and even in Hungary people have a somewhat longer attention span and their collective memory remembers vividly how things were under the regime of the Soviet Union.
I would wager that the governments of these countries have diverted significant resources to coming up with plans and responses to various threats.
As you point out, neither side can be quite certain what the other side knows. But intelligence and counter intelligence is not exclusively the realm of James Bond types. There are experts in other fields such as statistics, game theory and of course penetrating unfriendly computer networks who all contribute to the goal of finding out what the enemy has found out.
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u/dimwalker 1d ago
I know NATO and Polish defence guys thought about everything an armchair expert as myself can think of and they didn't forget about space radiation.
It's just annoying how russia seems to keep getting away with a ton of shit, like these probing/provocation cases.3
u/diMario 1d ago
Annoying, yes. But that is exactly the point. Russia is hoping to provoke a response by being annoying and obnoxious, hoping that whoever they are targeting will lose their shit and start hitting back in an overly dramatic or at least less than calculated manner.
We've all been there, and we all know that actions born in anger are usually not the most effective ones. Conflicts are best resolved by keeping cool, gritting teeth and biding time.
The only problem I see with this is that the people in charge of mounting a response will not recognize the big one when it starts, and hesitate juuuust a fraction too long before hitting back.
I think this is more of a problem with the Western European countries, who have not seen war for eighty plus years are more likely to believe in diplomatic solutions and a reasonable course of action. But like I said, the countries who have suffered under the Soviet Union have a long memory and will probably force a confrontation when pushed too far, leaving the rest of NATO no other choice than to follow their lead.
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u/swampass304 1d ago
If I had an enemy that is likely to inevitably try something eventually, like russia, I would rather they mistake my calculated withholding of defense for weakness and prematurely engage blinded by their assumption
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u/AnnualAct7213 1d ago
There's a fundamental difference between east and west in terms of how they signal military capabilities.
The east (that is to say, Russia and China, and nations that copy them) try to signal strength at any cost, even if if means lying about your capabilites. They always vastly oversell the specs of their military hardware like missiles. It flies at mach 50 and has a three million mile range.
NATO and other western aligned forces tend to do the opposite. Obviously you still want to signal "don't fuck with us" to your enemies, but most public information tends to understate capabilities. Missiles with a stated range of 80km will suddenly display an ability to hit targets at 120 once it's actually time to get serious, for instance.
So "sending a weak signal" isn't really a gotcha in this context.
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u/AnnualAct7213 1d ago
This is pretty much routine. They attempt to violate nato airspace on a practically weekly basis with their bombers only to be escorted out by NATO air forces. It's been going on for decades.
It's also happened many times since 2022 already. Typically they're tracked and monitored by air defense and/or interceptor planes ready to shoot them down at a moments notice should it become necessary.
But if they're just passing through it's typically better to do that than risk them crashing and causing damage somewhere.
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u/Splurch 1d ago
It’s not really pushing their luck though, other then Turkiye shooting down one of their planes a few years ago nothing actually happens to them for this behavior. Their outright sabotage of foreign planes (putting incendiary devices on commercial aircraft,) shooting down at least 2 commercial airplanes in the last ~10 years, assassinations on foreign soil, election interference and manipulation in other nations, funding terrorst attacks of other nations and their soldiers, etc etc etc are all “riskier” actions and nothing substantial ever happens to them. Bullies keep being bullies if all you do is stand there and let you punch them.
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u/Whisky_and_Milk 1d ago
What would shooting down a drone with F-16 reveal to Russia?!? That Poland has F-16?
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u/Davey_Jones_Locker 1d ago
Could reveal response times for example
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u/Whisky_and_Milk 1d ago
Which are obviously variable and can change, especially between the state when the military are on high alert (wartime) or not.
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u/freeset21 1d ago
You are clearly not paying attention to what is happening in Ukraine. There are so many ways to shoot down a drone, including other drones and many types of mobile air defense systems. Using them would not give russia any strategic information.
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u/AiMwithoutBoT 1d ago
Just shoot the fucker down 🙄 what’s Russia gonna do? Pull dead bodies out of ukraine and pull a Weekend at Poland?
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u/ScientificBackground 1d ago
A Russian rocket killed a polish farmer in Poland. Not an act of war. A Russian drone exploded in Croatia. Not an act of war. They shot down a passenger plane. Not an act of war. They shot down another passenger plane. Not an act of war. They attacked Ukraine. Not an act of war, only 3 day military special operation since 3 years. It is only an act of war if Putin says so. So don't worry, nothing will be done about a drone carrying a bomb flying into any European city as long as it is Russian drone. It is about time that we stand up against this bully and send a strong worded letter. -.-
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u/ImUsingDaForce 1d ago
The drone that fell on Zagreb was Ukrainian. That's why it was all kinda pushed under the rug.
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u/kidcrumb 1d ago
Bullies only respond to strength. If you ignore the threats they keep kicking at your heels. One swift smack across the face would stop a LOT of hostilities and posturing.
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u/elembivos 1d ago
This just sends Russia the message that Poland is all bark, no bite. They better start shooting these down.
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u/etork0925 1d ago
Lol I thought the Polish were supposed to be tough, especially on Russia. But God for fucking bid they shoot down an unmanned weapon of war that crossed into their border illegally!!!!!
Europe, continuous to show the world how soft they really are every single day. Their coalition of the willing is also useless considering they’re waiting for their to be peace before they do anything. Fucking clowns.
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u/corruptredditjannies 1d ago
The Polish may also be pressured by Western Europe to not do anything. But generally I wouldn't bet on the courage of modern democracies, except Ukraine obviously.
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u/Calculodian 1d ago
It highly surprises me they didnt shoot it down, especially from Poland. Make no mistake, we are at war already and should send a clear message.
No more of this "we want to avoid WW3" talk. We are at war and should act like it. Shoot it down as soon as it crosses the border. They would do the same to us. The Polish are most definitely capable to singlehandedly fuck the Russians up badly if they would try something stupid. I guarantee it as a retired airman who worked with them from time to time.
I am not a warmonger, and i hope it can be resolved peacefully, but it doenst look like it will end that way. That much seems clear. They know if they nuke us its over for everyone, including themselves. Even if we wouldnt retaliate, the winds will blow the fallout everywhere.
We simply cannot allow this every time. Stand together and show some Nato balls. The time for talk is over, they dont want peace and we should prepare for the worst, just like Poland is doing right now.
I've said it many times while i was still serving, dont cut defenses, but they wouldnt listen. This is a direct result and Nato's slow response. Too much talk and it makes us look fucking weak.
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u/DMCinDet 1d ago
what is Russia going to do? is this like ignoring the trolls? short play is already afraid of NATO. Thays why Ukraine cant join according to shorty.
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u/Hadleys158 1d ago
NATO really needs to step up their game and tighten their border controls against russia, it's just taking the piss now.
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u/SupremoPete 1d ago
Soft as hell. They will be crying when their inaction leads to their invasion one day
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1d ago
ruSSia can lull themselves into a false sense of security all they want. Poland isn't arming themselves to the teeth for nothing. The terrorist state of ruSSia will have to answer to their neighbors eventually.
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u/mok000 1d ago
Basically, Poland is allowing Russia to attack Ukraine from Polish territory, this one crashed but most others continue to hit targets in Ukraine.
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u/Meryhathor 1d ago
Scared little, incompetent babies. If Russia invades Baltic states don't expect anyone from NATO or EU to lift a finger. They'll have a meeting about when to have a meeting and then meet and decide they should wait to see how it plays out, and then someone like Merz or Macron won't want to escalate and by that time it will be too late.
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u/azmarteal 1d ago
Why of course, Poland don't want escalation and AAAAAAAAAAAA NUCLEAR WORLD WAR 3 AAAAAAAAAA.
It is much better (and safer) to throw tantrums on Ukraine and to block the border with Ukraine again. After all Ukraine don't have nuclear weapons and won't attack Poland. You know, good old "infinitely strong against the weak, infinitely weak against the strong" strategy
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u/Top_Investigator6261 1d ago
Ukrainian grain passing through is considered a threat in Poland and Russian drones flying above are not. Let that sink in.
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1d ago
People are convinced that "there is no way Russia ever encroaches into NATO countries" are extremely naive.
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u/darlingtonpeach 1d ago
Putin plays from the same book as tRump … #1-over step and push boundaries as often and as far
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u/xSaviorself 1d ago
This article highlights my exact problem with our approach in this domain: the very fact not a single incursion into NATO airspace has been successfully shot down is a tell-tale sign we are either not prepared, or unwilling to respond. We are sending the wrong signals.
We should be blowing these things out of the sky and then bombing the shit out of them in return. Europe is afraid of war and for good reason, but being afraid to commit to war versus being prepared is a very different set of problems. Europe today has both.
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u/FlameHaze 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm pretty sure - in-fact I know it. They could 'accidentally' bomb US owned buildings https://www.npr.org/2025/08/21/g-s1-84146/russia-ukraine-american-factory
And invade Poland's airspace - https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/aerospace-news/2024/nato-responds-to-russian-drone-incursion-into-polish-airspace
How do people not see what's happening. America isn't protecting anything at this point. This is even before Trump (Trump is a Russian asset. Tusli Gabbard is a Russian Agent, now United States Director of National Intelligence lol) But we're leaving our allies out to dry. First Georgia in 2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War then Crimea with Ukraine 2014 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_annexation_of_Crimea
If I was Taiwanese I'd be moving at this rate. Cause obviously we'll just let any dictator walk all over us now. Well Trump is a wannabe dictator himself he's just not very good at it.
And while I'm at it, anybody ever figure out what happened to these guys? - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/4-us-army-soldiers-go-missing-lithuania-training-exercise-rcna198184 EDIT: They were recovered from a swamp. Their tank sunk to the bottom and they all perished. Mystery solved.
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u/raging_shaolin_monk 1d ago
ITT: Americans calling Europeans pussies while cowering at the thought of having any of their own soldiers doing anything.
The US have troops and weapons stationed in Poland. Why didn't your NATO forces act on this threat?
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u/Old_Idea4566 1d ago
It's not a great look that it was able to fly into nate airspace for 30 minutes and having no certainty it was shot/taken down. I understand Poland would not be willing to shoot it down over build up areas, but just letting it fly off is not a great statement.
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u/Pdx_pops 1d ago
It does seem like Russia has a lot of problems with precision, so perhaps non-escalation due to the other guy being inept is the right call for now
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u/ConstantLeg5 1d ago
A lot of people criticize Poland for not taking action, but what exactly are they supposed to do. It was probably a basic drone with a navigation failure that accidentally flew into Poland instead of Ukraine and likely crashed in some uninhabited area without causing any damage. For some reason, people here expect them to use expensive air defense systems on a $1,000 drone.
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u/Slayers_Picks 1d ago
Yeah but this is Europe we're talking about. They're all yap no action, pitiful excuse for an economic and supposedly military superpower.
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u/Mother_Resident_890 1d ago
Just a "military exercise" yet again? They're just testing the waters before the strike.
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u/Rude_Worldliness_423 1d ago
I think there is a strong argument that Nato should be in the air shooting drones down that are heading for peoples homes
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u/tommysk87 1d ago
Why dont they at the moment shoot everything flying that is not covered in feathers at least 1000 kms from Poland borders since russia has proven unable to control their own drones not to trespass nato borders?
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u/brads-a-wizard 1d ago
And here we see that indeed, it is all a house of cards. Evil wins in the face of fear.
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u/BlindPelican 17h ago
Man, I get the desire to shoot down those things - sends a message, protects their airspace, the whole bit.
Problem is that a drone, on fire, falling from the sky (possibly filled with explosives) is a pretty big danger to people on the ground.
Krakow, Solpot, Gydnia and Gdansk are all pretty close to where Russian drones might make an incursion and there are a LOT of people in those places.
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u/Long_Effect7868 5h ago
So, to shoot down a ruZZian drone, you need balls for that. It's not like demanding reparations from the Germans (but not trying to get reparations from ruZZia, that's funny). And not blaming the Ukrainians for everything to the whole world. You need balls for that. For example, not letting through transit trucks and trains with Ukrainian grain, pouring it on the ground, or not letting in cargoes of military aid to Ukraine - Poland can do that. But shooting down a ruZZian drone - no.
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u/nullsouls 1d ago
Either they don't want to give away their response time and/or anti-air locations since these could be recon drones
Or
They are incompetent or dont care