In a deliberate violation of Poland’s airspace, Moscow deployed 19 drones across that country’s border Sept. 9, during a broader assault on working people in Ukraine.
Warplanes from the Netherlands and Poland, both members of the Washington-led NATO military alliance, shot down three of the unmanned aircraft, the first direct military clash between NATO-allied forces and Moscow since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his regime’s war to conquer Ukraine.
The clash occurred as sharpening rivalries between capitalist powers worldwide are driving an arms race and threaten wider wars. As part of their military preparations, the German and Polish governments mobilized forces to lead NATO war games days before and just after Moscow’s incursion.
Some of Moscow’s drones sent into Poland were shot down. Some got as far as densely populated urban areas far from Poland’s border with Belarus before crashing. In the face of the evidence, President Donald Trump claims the incursion “could have been a mistake.” The violation of Polish airspace lasted for seven hours. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said there was no question it was deliberate.
On Sept. 12, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced several additional fighter jets and a warship — from France, Denmark, Germany and the U.K. — would be deployed to Poland. Some 10,000 U.S. troops are already stationed there, part of Washington’s widespread military deployment on the European continent.
Since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Polish government has more than doubled its military spending and is fortifying its 400-mile border with Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. The numbers volunteering for Poland’s civilian military training programs are at record high levels.
Moscow: ‘End Polish statehood’
The Russian government “will treat it [Poland] precisely as a historical enemy,” Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, announced in November 2023. The Polish government’s rearmament plans “could lead to the death of Polish statehood in its entirety,” he threatened. Months earlier, Putin condemned the course of the Polish government in 1939, saying its “aggressive policy” was responsible for the invasion of the country by the Nazi regime in Germany.
Today some 30,000 Polish soldiers and allied NATO troops began what they called “Iron Defender 2025” war games across the country Sept. 1, due to last until the end of the month.
Beginning Sept. 11, the German navy is leading additional NATO military exercises in the Baltic Sea. Some 8,000 German troops are involved, as well as soldiers from the three Baltic states, the U.K., the U.S. and eight other countries. The drills are aimed at testing the ability of NATO forces to move rapidly from Germany, their central supply hub, to areas of conflict elsewhere.
At the same time, Moscow began joint war games with forces from Belarus near the Polish border. They feature the use of new nuclear-capable missiles and a simulation of a nuclear attack. Trump seeks to advance Washington’s relations with the Belarus government and, if possible, with Moscow. He accepted an invitation to send U.S. military top brass to observe the drills.
Trump’s special envoy, John Coale, is negotiating the re-establishment of trade relations with Belarus, sanctions relief for the country’s national airline and the possible reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Minsk.
The U.S. rulers’ course in Europe is based on their drive to impose stability across Europe and elsewhere for their own predatory interests, not for the defense of Ukraine or Poland’s sovereignty. Washington’s goal is to grab markets and resources from its competitors and to try to pull Moscow away from its deepening ties to Beijing, the U.S. rulers’ main global rival.
Meanwhile, the Russian rulers are unremitting in their brutal attempt to conquer Ukraine’s people. In July alone Moscow launched nearly 6,300 drone attacks, targeting heavily populated cities. But Putin’s forces have made only small territorial advances, a reflection of the determination of working people in Ukraine to defend the country’s sovereignty and repel the invasion. Moscow continues to use workers and farmers in Russia as cannon fodder in vast numbers, leading to high casualty rates and growing opposition at home.
The three-and-half-year-plus bloody conflict is a harbinger of more devastating wars to come.