War risk highest since WWII, Poland warns

Poland’s Prime Minister has dropped a  warning that the world is edging closer to a full-blown war than at any time since World War II, after Russian suicide drones were shot down on NATO soil overnight.

The scenes forced more than eight million Poles to take cover indoors as debris from one of the drones smashed into a house. Warsaw says it’s a direct act of aggression from Moscow the most serious escalation yet in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

PM Donald Tusk told parliament that some of the drones came in from Belarus, Russia’s ally, and confirmed three or four of the 19 drones were downed in joint action with NATO forces. “This is the first time Russian drones have been shot down over NATO territory,” he said, warning allies to take the threat seriously.

Tusk has already moved to invoke NATO’s Article 4, which calls member states to urgent talks, and convened Poland’s security council to decide the country’s next steps.

“This is a large-scale provocation. Poland is ready to react,” he declared, raising fears across Europe that Vladimir Putin is deliberately testing the West’s defences.

For now, there are no casualties.