Tusk warns of 'Russian plan' for hybrid attacks on countries supporting Ukraine
On 18 September 2026 Poland's prime minister warned intelligence shows drones and missiles could be used to strike NATO countries backing Kyiv, prompting air‑raid alerts and F‑16s.
Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on 18 September 2026 that intelligence points to a "Russian plan" involving "hybrid attacks" against countries that support Ukraine. He told parliament that the plot reportedly includes strikes with drones and missiles aimed at NATO states on the alliance's eastern flank.
Tensions rise along NATO's eastern flank
"There is a real risk" that drones could fall on the territory of one or more eastern-flank NATO countries, Tusk said in Warsaw, warning that such incidents could cause material damage and destruction. He added that Moscow's likely official line would be to call any such event an "accident", and that the true purpose would be to undermine alliance unity.
Tusk's remarks came after a series of drone incidents in the Poland–Ukraine border area. The Polish government reported another drone strike near a border crossing, and the prime minister said: "Very close to the Polish border, near Dorohusk, probably a petrol station was attacked again."
Poland's defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, posted on platform X that "Russia does not stop its aggressive actions." On Thursday morning air-raid sirens sounded in the south‑eastern Polish cities of Rzeszów and Lublin, authorities issued an air alert for the region and urged residents to shelter. The Polish Air Force scrambled F‑16 fighters.
A spokesperson for the Polish Armed Forces' Supreme Command told TVN24 that radar systems tracked an unmanned aircraft approaching the Polish border from Ukrainian territory. The aircraft, likely a jet combat drone, was later shot down or hit its target over Ukrainian soil. After about an hour the alerts were lifted.
The government also said that earlier attacks near the Dorohusk–Yahodyn crossing on Ukrainian soil included multiple Russian drone strikes and that a passenger train on the Kyiv–Warsaw route was hit. Warsaw accused Moscow of further escalation in its war against Ukraine. Similar drone-related incidents have been recorded in several eastern European NATO members in recent months, including countries bordering Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, Belarus and Ukraine, and the Baltic states.
Photo: press material from the event
