On the day where Poland is sweeping up debris from a huge drone incursion on its territory, John Healey is hosting its defence minister in London.

It’s no last-minute arrangement – the British Defence Secretary has had this meeting of the E5 nations in his diary for a while.

Joining Poland, France, Germany, Italy and the UK is Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s minister of defence.

As you might expect, the chat was due to focus on the situation in Ukraine. But now, a particularly pressing new issue will have been forced onto the agenda.

Overnight, Polish airspace was ‘violated by a huge number of Russian drones’, the country’s President Donald Tusk wrote on X.

The drones that ‘posed a direct threat’ were shot down, he said – confirming what appears to be the first direct engagement of Russian a

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