UK, French, German leaders discuss drone incursions into Poland

LONDON

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held separate phone talks Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to denounce Russia’s violation of Polish airspace.

A British government statement said that "the leaders condemned the shocking Russian violation of NATO and Poland’s airspace yesterday."

Poland called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and introduced sweeping restrictions on civilian flights along its eastern border with Belarus and Ukraine.

It comes amid heightened security concerns in the NATO member state after Wednesday’s drone incident, which prompted Warsaw to step up coordination with allies.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its drones had carried out a large-scale strike on military targets in western Ukraine but denied any intention to hit Polish territory.

"It was clear that Russia was continuing to ramp up its aggression, systematically stepping up its attacks through a campaign of increasingly belligerent actions, including through strikes on the Council of Ministers and diplomatic missions in Kyiv," said Starmer.

Discussing how the UK and France could bolster Poland’s defenses, Starmer said the UK stood ready to support any further NATO deployments to the region.

On wider European security, Merz and the British premier underscored the importance of defending NATO from conventional and hybrid threats posed by Russia.

Turning to the Middle East, Starmer reiterated his condemnation of Israel’s strikes in Qatar.

Israeli warplanes struck a residential building Tuesday in Doha that was housing Hamas officials.

Qatar strongly condemned the Israeli attack as a "blatant violation of international law" and a threat to its sovereignty and security.

The Gulf state has been a key mediator in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas to end Tel Aviv’s deadly assault in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 64,700 victims since October 2023.