Panic in Poland with fighter jets 'not ready' as WW3 fears erupt

Fears are growing that NATO is not ready for a global conflict with Russia after Moscow's drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace. In response, advanced NATO fighter jets were deployed. However, the coordinated assault has exposed worrying cracks in the alliance's lower-altitude air defence systems, a Polish lieutenant has warned, forcing the alliance to use expensive advanced aircraft against relatively cheap unmanned targets.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed at least 19 Shahed-type drone incursions near the Polish border - the first major test of Polish air defences since the start of Russia's war with Ukraine and the closest the country has come to open conflict since World War 2. Now, the Polish lieutenant, as well as a former commander of US ground forces in Europe, has claimed the use of F-35 aircraft to shoot down these drones has underscored just how ill-prepared Poland is for potential mass drone warfare. A critical assessment of the use of state-of-the-art fighter jets for drone warfare was expressed by the former commander of US ground forces in Europe, General Ben Hodges, who wrote on X: "NATO/USEUCOM needs to conduct long-needed air defence exercises across the theatre of operations. Using F-35s and F-22s against drones shows that we are not yet prepared".

This was a sentiment shared by Polish Lieutenant General Jarosaw Gromadziski: "This is shooting a cannon at a fly. We should build a multi-layered air defence system that at the lowest altitude takes into account both kinetic and jamming systems," he said.

On Thursday, Russian drones shot down over Poland, which are believed to have been targeted at a NATO base, reports suggest. In the early hours of Wednesday morning Polish, Dutch and Italian fighter jets scrambled to intercept a wave of Russian drones that had crossed the border from Belarus. This NATO base is reportedly linked to the supply of military equipment to Ukraine.

"I was up all night. From 2am there was a high intensity of disinformation from various trolls spreading information that the drones had allegedly already reached Ciechanów", Lieutenant Gromadziski explained, a city 60 miles from the capital, Warsaw.

"It was clearly a combined hybrid action: the Shahed strike and the media activity," the former Eurocorps commander told Euronews.

He said he believed this action proves that Russia is provoking Poland and testing the country's reaction capabilities and response times.

"This was extinguished in the morning, which means that our services started to counteract it. It was a big test of our capabilities."

While the general was positive about the Polish response to the Russian incursion - especially the bold decision to close the airspace to civilian traffic and use NATO forces - he said that a firm response from the whole NATO alliance is currently the most important factor.

"For me, it's not important that we destroyed those drones, that's what we should do unquestionably. Surely. But the most important thing now is what Polish diplomacy and the allies will do," Lieutenant Gromadziski said.

Without a firm response from the whole NATO alliance, "this will embolden the Russian side and we will have drones more often and deeper in our country".

Finally, General Gromadziski urged that experts should be listened to and trusted, not internet influencers, admitting that Poland's giving of information during a crisis is another weak link in the country's defence structure.

"We don't have something like STRATCOM [UK's Strategic Command] [...] Today, a local police station was giving information about a drone being found. There should not be such things," he said. "There should be centralised information to avoid fake news. The citizen should be aware that they are only receiving information from this source. This is an information war that Russia is really good at."