By Barbara Erling and Pawel Florkiewicz
WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland rejected on Friday a suggestion by Donald Trump that Russian drone incursions into its airspace could have been a mistake, a rare contradiction of the U.S. president from one of Washington’s closest European allies.
Poland, backed by aircraft from other NATO, shot down drones that had violated its airspace on Wednesday, the first time a member of the Western military alliance is known to have fired during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Russia said its forces had been attacking Ukraine at the time and that it had not intended to hit any targets in Poland. Trump told reporters in Washington on Thursday: “It could have been a mistake.”
But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded on X: “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it.”
Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Friday that his patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin was “sort of running out and running out fast,” but stopped short of threatening new sanctions over the war.
After strong condemnation of Russia by European leaders over the incident, Germany said it had extended air policing over Poland and summoned the Russian ambassador on Friday.
The United Nations Security Council was set to meet on Friday at Poland’s request to discuss the incident. NATO called a press conference for Friday afternoon by its head, Mark Rutte, and its top military official, Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkewich, who is a U.S. Air Force general.
QUESTIONS ABOUT EUROPEAN DEFENCES
For Warsaw’s leadership so directly to contradict Trump is almost unheard of, and a sign of Europe’s alarm at the U.S. president’s willingness to give weight to Moscow’s account.
Poland is among the closest U.S. allies in Europe. It has praised Trump for calling for greater European military spending, and has been praised in turn by the Trump administration for devoting the largest share of its economy to defence of any NATO ally, including the United States itself.
Warsaw has portrayed the drone incursions as an attempt by Russia to test the capabilities of Poland and NATO to respond.
This week’s incident has raised questions about NATO’s preparedness for drone attacks and the security of Europe’s civil air transport.
European leaders say it is the latest demonstration that Moscow has no interest in a peace deal in Ukraine, weeks after Trump hosted President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and withdrew a demand that Russia accept an immediate ceasefire.
Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Moscow to agree a ceasefire or face new sanctions, only to row back.
European officials have been in Washington this week hoping to coordinate sanctions on Russia with the U.S. administration. Announcing such sanctions in tandem was previously standard practice but has not taken place since Trump returned to office.
The U.S. Treasury called on Group of Seven and European Union allies to impose “meaningful tariffs” on goods from China and India to halt their purchases of Russian oil and convened an emergency G7 finance meeting to discuss efforts to step up pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
EU member states agreed on Friday to a regular six-month extension to their existing list of travel bans and freezes on bank accounts of people and companies over the Russian invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday peace negotiations were on pause and that “the Europeans are hindering this” peace process.
On Thursday Paris said it would deploy three Rafale fighter jets to help Poland protect its airspace and Germany said it would strengthen its commitment to NATO’s eastern border.
RUSSIA AND BELARUS HOLD MILITARY EXERCISE
Russia and its close ally Belarus began a long-planned joint military exercise on Friday involving drills in both countries and in the Baltic and Barents seas.
Dismissing concerns abroad about the exercise, Peskov said Western European countries were suffering “emotional overload” and that Russia did not pose a threat to them.
Russia also pressed on with attacks on Ukraine, killing three people in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, local Ukrainian prosecutors said.
Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s northwestern port of Primorsk, setting fire to a vessel and a pumping station, the regional governor said. It was the first reported drone strike on one of the country’s largest oil and fuel export terminals.
(Additional reporting by Anna Koper in Warsaw, Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv, John Irish and Michel Rose in Paris, Andrea Shalal in Washington, William James and Mark Trevelyan in London, Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Peter Graff)
