As soon as details began to emerge that Warsaw and NATO scrambled aircraft to defend against several Russian drones flying through Polish airspace, questions loomed about whether this was a deliberate incursion by Moscow, and how the intergovernmental alliance would respond.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared that the country is the "closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two."

The government invoked Article 4, under which it can demand consultation with NATO members.

Though its allies lined up to condemn Russia, they were also careful to not label it as an attack, signalling that this is not a situation that warrants invoking the collective defence measure of Article 5, which stipulates that an attack on one is considered an attack on all of NATO.

The Polish gov

See Full Page