Welcome to your weekly commentary and overview of news from Slovakia. Russian drones in Poland bring the Russian war even closer to home. The latest consolidation package is finally unveiled, with bad news for employees and the self-employed.
If you have a suggestion on how to make this overview better, let me know at michaela.terenzani@spectator.sk.
Drones over Poland
Since the Second World War, Poland has not come as close to armed conflict as last week, said Prime Minister Donald Tusk, after a swarm of Russian drones penetrated his country’s airspace.
At least 19 drones were intercepted by allied air defences in the skies over Poland, making it the first time that Russian weapons had been shot down by NATO forces. Some fell just beyond the Polish-Belarusian border, but one drone got as far as the village of Mniszków, near Warsaw – deep within Polish territory, and less than 300 kilometres from the border with Slovakia.
Anyone hoping for a resolute, unified reaction from the Slovak government was destined, once again, to be disappointed.
Read more:
How Slovak politicians reacted
Why drones in Poland should be disturbing (not only) Fico’s government
What happened in Poland
At least 19 drones violated the airspace of Poland overnight and into the early morning of Wednesday, September 10. The Polish armed forces had to intervene and shoot them down using F-16 fighter jets. Dutch F-35s and Italian AWACS warplanes were engaged as well, Reuters reported.
Poland called it an unprecedented act of Russian aggression and was quickly joined by most NATO and EU allies in condemning it. European leaders, including NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte and EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaja Kallas left little room for doubt that the presence of Russian drones in Poland was far from accidental.
The Polish government triggered Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, i.e. consultations within the North Atlantic Council, the highest political decision-making body of NATO; they took place later the same day.
The incident occurred only a few days before the official start of “Zapad 2025”, a military exercise by Russian and Belarusian forces. The last time the Zapad exercise took place was four years ago, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – much of it launched from Belarusian territory – followed months later.
