Trump: 'Russian drones in Poland may have been mistake'. Warsaw deploys 40,000 soldiers to the border

France mobilises three Rafale fighter jets to ''contribute to the protection of Polish airspace'', French President Emmanuel Macron announced.

"Everything indicates that the launching of Russian drones into Polish territory via Ukraine and Belarus was deliberate and certainly not accidental. Unfortunately, Russia has the ability to continue and expand its aggression'. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky writes this on Telegram at the end of his meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb. "Strong measures are needed, not only from Europe, but also strong pressure that really limits the Russian belligerent potential. We are grateful to Finland for its support for all sanctioning actions. We look forward to the 19th EU sanctions package'.

Poland announced that it has restricted air traffic along its eastern border following the intrusion of some 20 alleged Russian drones into its territory.

This restriction, in force until 9 December, 'was put in place to ensure national security', the Polish air navigation agency said in a statement.

"In the EP R129 zone [a strip of territory on the Belarus-Ukraine border], a 24-hour overflight ban applies for civil unmanned aircraft [drones]", Poland informed.

The Polish Foreign Ministry has announced that, at its request, an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council will be held. 'At Poland's request, an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council will be convened regarding Russia's violation of Polish airspace,' the ministry said on X. News anticipated by the South Korean mission, which will chair the Council in September, quoted by Tass. The meeting could be held on Friday, a diplomatic source told the Russian agency.

Donald Trump wants to reopen the US embassy in Belarus in the near future, normalise relations and revive economic and trade relations, Trump's envoy John Coale said, according to Reuters on its website. Coale spoke to Belarusian journalists in Minsk after holding talks with President Alexander Lukashenko - a close ally of Vladimir Putin - who agreed to release 52 prisoners in what he called a humanitarian gesture.

Poland has asked its allies for additional air defence systems and anti-drone technology to protect its territory from Russian incursions. This was reported by the Bloomberg news agency. "We need Patriots because drones are not the only form of Russian threat to our airspace. We also need an 'anti-drone wall',' Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told a press conference in Warsaw.

British Defence Secretary John Healey said that London is considering ways to comply with Poland's request. One option under consideration would be to return at least some of the six Typhoon fighter jets that had been deployed in Poland as part of the NATO 'air policing' mission that started six weeks ago.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X that during his talks on Wednesday with the leaders of France, the UK, Ukraine, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, he 'received not only expressions of solidarity with Poland, but above all concrete proposals to support our country's air defence'.

After the escalation with the Russian drone attacks in Poland 'we are on the brink of the abyss, in the sense that there is an escalation that is frightening'. This was said by the Vatican's Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, on the sidelines of a conference at the Vatican. Responding to journalists' questions on the cry of alarm also launched by the President of the Republic, Mattarella, the cardinal said: 'I agree. I repeat that we are in a moment of great danger. There is not a moment's second thought on the path taken and there is the risk of an endless escalation that can lead to a wider-ranging war'.

The Polish Ministry of Digitalisation has warned against disinformation on the Internet and published a list of arguments spread by Russian and Belarusian sources. Among them, writes Dpa, is the claim that Ukraine wants to drag Poland, a member of the EU and NATO, into the war with Russia and has therefore sent drones into the neighbouring country. The claim that Poland is completely powerless in the face of the drones is also Russian propaganda and serves to sow panic, according to the ministry. Prime Minister Donald Tusk on X also warned fellow citizens against spreading Russian propaganda aimed at harming the state and Poles.

Keir Starmer's British government is ready to authorise the Raf commands to make available to NATO a contingent of Typhoon fighter jets to be deployed in Poland after the drone incursion into Polish skies attributed to Russia yesterday. This was reported by concordant Defence Ministry sources quoted anonymously on the front page of both the Daily Telegraph and The Times today.

Yesterday, speaking at the conclusion of an E5 ministerial meeting on the outskirts of London between representatives of the defence ministries of the five European countries, EU and non-EU, leaders in military spending (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Poland), the British minister John Healey had stressed - like the Italian minister Guido Crosetto - the importance of a collective response by the allies in defence of Warsaw and in support of Ukraine. He also recalled how the United Kingdom currently has about 300 soldiers and various means stationed in Poland as part of the NATO reinforcement contingents on the alliance's eastern flank; and had a presence of Raf jets called to rotate with those of other countries between the alliance's Polish bases and the former Soviet Baltic republics.