Clearance operations in the village of Wyryki near Lublin, Poland, continued Thursday morning after the it was hit when Russian drones violated Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine.

Multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland on Wednesday in what European officials described as a deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down.

A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance confronted a potential threat in its airspace.

The incursion, which occurred during a wave of strikes by the Kremlin on Ukraine, and the NATO response swiftly raised fears that the war could spill over — a fear that has been growing in Europe as Russia steps up its attacks and peace efforts go nowhere.

Poland requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the drone incursion.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that “lost their course” because they were jammed.

However, several European leaders said they believed the incursion amounted to an intentional expansion of Russia's assault against Ukraine.

Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in NATO territory.