Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned the Polish parliament Thursday that intelligence assessments show Russia is planning hybrid strikes using drones and missiles against European countries supporting Ukraine, including Poland. Tusk described the intelligence as "very consistent and convincing," saying Moscow intends to disguise the attacks as accidental in order to undermine NATO's willingness to invoke collective defense obligations under Article 5 of the alliance's founding treaty.

Tusk said Russia's strategy is to use recurring incidents to portray NATO as incapable of a unified response, eroding confidence in the alliance's mutual defense commitments. "The aim will be to weaken NATO's integrity in general and, above all, to convince member states that Article 5 is more theoretical than practical — that is, the assumption that no one will want to die for Latvia or Lithuania," Tusk said, warning that each staged accident would serve as an escalating demonstration of NATO's perceived helplessness.

The warning came as a drone struck a petrol station near Ukraine's border with Poland on Thursday, and Polish air defenses were activated after a jet-powered drone approached Polish airspace before exploding approximately four kilometers from the border. Airports in Lublin and Rzeszow temporarily suspended operations as a precaution. The incidents followed a Russian drone strike on a train near the Polish-Ukrainian border the previous Sunday, during which several European leaders were in transit through the area.

Tusk announced he would travel overnight to Kyiv, arriving Friday, for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on defenses against new drone types and additional sanctions against Russia. He also said Russia is not prepared for any peace negotiations short of Ukraine's "total capitulation" and that Moscow believes the coming winter will be "tragically critical" for Ukraine, with intelligence indicating high-frequency, high-intensity attacks on six major Ukrainian cities are expected in the near term. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has maintained warmer ties with Moscow while criticizing Western military aid to Ukraine, also said he would be in Kyiv, as the European Union announced it would disburse 3.3 billion euros to Ukraine on Friday to purchase missiles and drones.