Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov did not comment on the situation with drones in the airspace of Poland, forwarding questions to the Ministry of Defense.
"We would not like to comment on this in any way. This is not in our competence. This is the prerogative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation," he said when asked at a briefing whether this incident could be a provocation.
As EADaily reported, early in the morning of September 10, the operational command of the Polish army announced the destruction of several objects identified as UAVs and violated the country's airspace. The Polish leadership has agreed to start urgent consultations with NATO partners due to the arrival on the territory of the country, according to Warsaw, allegedly Russian drones that had to be shot down by alliance aircraft. Poland will ask NATO to apply Article 4 of the alliance's charter regarding official consultations with allies. According to this article, "the parties will hold joint consultations in all cases when, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is under threat."
A Reuters source in NATO said that so far the North Atlantic Alliance does not consider the arrival of Russian drones to be a deliberate attack, although, according to him, initial signs indicated a deliberate invasion of six to ten drones. "This was the first time that NATO aircraft encountered a potential threat to allied airspace," he said, adding that NATO's Patriot air defense systems in the region detected drones using their radars, but did not shoot them down.
According to him, Polish F-16 fighters, Dutch F-35, Italian AWACS surveillance aircraft and air refueling aircraft jointly operated by NATO participated in the night operation.