NATO’s top leaders announced new efforts Friday to step up air defenses in the alliance’s eastern flank after Russian drones that flew into Poland this week revealed how easily the war in Ukraine could spill over borders.

Increased air patrols, ground-based interceptor systems, sensors and heightened surveillance will be mobilized, officials said. The military operation, called Eastern Sentry, will initially focus on Poland but can be shifted elsewhere in the region as needed.

“Russia’s recklessness in the air along our eastern flank is increasing in frequency,” said NATO’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, who added that adversarial drones also have recently violated the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

It remains unclear why the Russian drones entered Poland shortly af

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