Putin Takes Trump’s Weird Drone Response as Green Light to Escalate

Russia has followed up its recent incursions against Poland with threats to other NATO members.

Nineteen Russian drones, many originating from Belarus, crossed into Polish airspace late Tuesday, forcing the Eastern European nation to shut down four of its airports as it scrambled to fire up its defense systems. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk invoked Article 4 of the NATO Treaty the following day, calling the ​​situation the “closest” that Poland had come to armed conflict since World War II.

But rather than de-escalate the situation, the Kremlin has decided to stoke more fear. Deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev—who has also served as the country’s president and prime minister, and remains a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin—warned in a statement that Finland could collapse “forever” if it decided to oppose Russia’s power.

“The Finnish establishment mustn’t forget: Confrontation with Russia can lead to collapse of Finnish statehood—this time forever,” said Medvedev. “Unlike in 1944, no one will go soft on them this time.”

Any attack on Finland would invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which would call all other NATO members into a unified defense strategy. The article has only ever been activated once during the 70-year history of the international alliance: 24 hours after September 11, 2001.

Medvedev also made reference to the Mannerheim Line, a defensive fortification that Finland built against the Soviet Union roughly a century ago. In the statement, he implied that Finland’s “new” version of the defense strategy had been interpreted by Russian leadership as a retaliatory measure.

The statement also linked out to a lengthy Telegram post that baselessly accused Finland of committing “genocide and war crimes” against the Soviet Union, and of being “a satellite of Nazi Germany.”

Speaking with CNN Wednesday, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said that the drone incursion was accompanied by a massive Russian disinformation campaign, and that attempts to blame the drones’ presence on other countries, especially Ukraine, were little more than propaganda.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who claims he has a good relationship with Putin, has yet to meaningfully comment on the drone incursion into Poland. On Wednesday, he wrote on Truth Social, “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!”